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(Princeton  C^eofo^icdf  ^eminarg 

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HANDBOOKS 


BIBLE     CLASSES 

AND    PRIVATE    STUDENTS. 


EDITED  BY 


PROFESSOR    MARCUS    DODS,    D  D., 


AND 


REV.  ALEXANDER  WHYTE,  D.D. 


STALKER'S  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


SCRIBNER      &      WELFORD, 

743     AND     745      BROADWAY, 

NEW      Y  O  R  K. 


THE  Lirr; 


OF 


JESUS    CHRIST. 


JAMES    STALKER,    D.D.,    Glasgow, 

AUTHOR    OF    "the    LIFE    OF    ST.    I'AUI.." 


THIRTY-FOURTH    THOUSAND. 


SCRIBNER      &      WELFORD, 

743     AND     745      BROADWAY, 

N  E  W      \^  O  R  K . 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION. 


The  changes  introduced  into  this  new  edition  are  few  and  slight. 
But  I  am  glad  to  have  this  opportunity  of  pointing  out,  more 
distinctly  than  is  done  in  the  text,  that  the  names  given  to  the 
different  years  of  our  Lord's  public  ministry  are  descriptive  only 
of  their  most  prominent  characteristics  ;  and  especially  that  in 
what  I  have  called  the  Year  of  Public  Favour,  although  the  dis- 
position of  the  general  mind  towards  Him  was  such  as  fully  to 
justify  the  designation.  He  was  already  assailed  by  the  authorities 
with  much  of  the  kind  of  opposition  which  is  described  in  the 
fifth  chapter. 

The  kind  reception  accorded  to  the  first  edition  of  this  little 
Handbook  seems  to  show  that,  notwithstanding  the  number 
of  works  on  the  same  subject  which  have  recently  issued  from 
the  press,  there  was  need  of  a  book  which,  by  exhibiting  in 
the  briefest  possible  space  the  main  features  and  the  general 
course  of  our  Lord's  life,  should  cause  the  well-known  details 
to  flow  together  in  the  reader's  mind,  and  shape  themselves  into 
an  easily  comprehended  whole. 

Kirkcaldy,  March  i,  i88a 


CONTENTS. 


CHAP.      I. — THE  BIRTH,  INTANCY,  AND  YOUTH  OF  JESUS, 

CHAP.     II. — THE  NATION  AND  THE  TIME, 

DIVISIONS  OF  HIS  PUBLIC  MINISTRY,      . 

CHAP.   III. — THE  YEAR  OF  OBSCURITY,  . 

CHAP.    IV. — THE  YEAR  OF  PUBLIC  FAVOUR,  , 

CHAP.     V. — THE  YEAR  OF  OPPOSITION, 

CHAP.    VL — THE  END 

CONCLUSION, 

HINTS  FOR  TEACHERS  AND  QUESTION'S  FOR  PUPILS, 


PAGE 

10 

26 

45 
46 

52 

84 

102 

137 

139 


CHAPTER    I. 
THE  BIRTH,  INFANCY,  AND   YOUTH  OF  JESUS. 

I'aragraphs  1-5.  The  Nativity. 

6-10.  The  Group  round  the  Infant. 

7.  The   Shepherds ;    8.    Simeon   and   Anna ;    9.   The 
Wise  Men  ;  10.   Herod. 

11-24.  The  Silent  Years  at  Nazareth. 

II,  12.   Lack  of  Trustworthy  Records. 

15,  16.   His  Home. 

17-24.    Educational  Influences — 

18.  The    Old    Testament ;    19.     Human    Nature ; 

20.    Scenery  of   Nazareth  ;    21-23.    Visits   to 

Jerusalem. 


CHAPTER    I. 
THE  BIRTH,  INFANCY,  AND  YOUTH  OF  JESUS. 

1.  The  Nativity. — Augustus  was  sitting  on  the  throne  of  the 
Roman  empire,  and  the  touch  of  his  finger  could  set  the 
machinery  of  government  in  motion  over  well-nigh  the  whole  of 
the  civilised  world.  He  was  proud  of  his  power  and  wealth,  and 
it  was  one  of  his  favourite  occupations  to  compile  a  register  of 
the  populations  and  revenues  of  his  vast  dominions.  So  he 
issued  an  edict,  as  the  Evangelist  Luke  says,  *  that  all  the  world 
should  be  taxed,'  or,  to  express  accurately  what  the  words  pro- 
bably mean,  that  a  census,  to  serve  as  a  basis  for  future  taxation, 
should  be  taken  of  all  his  subjects.  One  of  the  countries 
affected  by  this  decree  was  Palestine,  whose  king,  Herod  the 
Great,  was  a  vassal  of  Augustus.  It  set  the  whole  land  in  motion  ; 
for,  in  accordance  with  ancient  Jewish  custom,  the  census  was 
taken,  not  at  the  places  where  the  inhabitants  were  at  the  time 
residing,  but  at  tne  places  to  which  they  belonged  as  members 
of  the  original  twelve  tribes. 

2.  Among  those  whom  the  edict  of  Augustus  thus  from  afar 

drove  forth  to  the  highways  were  a  humble  pair  in  the  Galilean 

village  of  Nazareth — ^Joseph,  the  carpenter  of  the  village,  and 

Mary,  his  espoused  wife.     They  had  to  go  a  journey  of  nearly  a 

hundred  miles  in   order  to  inscribe   themselves  in   the  proper 

register ;  for,  though  peasants,  they  had  the  blood  of  kings  in 

their   veins,    and    belonged   to  the    ancient   and   royal    town  of 

11 


12  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Bethlehem,  in  the  far  south  of  the  country.  Day  by  day  the 
emperor's  will,  like  an  invisible  hand,  forced  them  southward 
along  the  weary  road,  till  at  last  they  climbed  the  rocky  ascent 
that  led  to  the  gate  of  the  town, — he  terrified  with  anxiety,  and  she 
well-nigh  dead  with  fatigue.  They  reached  the  inn,  but  found  it 
crowded  with  strangers,  who,  bent  on  the  same  errand  as  them- 
selves, had  arrived  before  them.  No  friendly  house  opened  its 
door  to  receive  them,  and  they  were  fain  to  clear  for  their 
lodging  a  corner  of  the  inn-yard,  else  occupied  by  the  beasts  of 
the  numerous  travellers.  There,  that  very  night,  she  brought 
forth  her  first-born  Son  ;  and  because  there  was  neither  womanly 
hand  to  assist  her  nor  couch  to  receive  Him,  she  wrapped  Him 
in  swaddling-clothes  and  laid  Him  in  a  manger. 

3.  Such  was  the  manner  of  the  birth  of  Jesus.  I  never  felt 
the  full  pathos  of  the  scene,  till,  standing  one  day  in  a  room  of 
an  old  inn  in  the  market-town  of  Eisleben,  in  Central  Germany, 
I  was  told  that  on  that  very  spot,  four  centuries  ago,  amidst 
the  noise  of  a  market-day  and  the  bustle  of  a  public-house,  the 
•vife  of  the  poor  miner,  Hans  Luther,  who  happened  to  be  there 
on  business,  being  surprised  like  Mary  with  sudden  distress, 
brought  forth  in  sorrow  and  poverty  the  child  who  was  to 
become  Martin  Luther,  the  hero  of  the  Reformation  and  the 
maker  of  modem  Europe. 

4.  Next  morning  the  noise  and  bustle  broke  out  again  in  the 
inn  and  inn-yard ;  the  citizens  of  Bethlehem  went  about  their 
work ;  the  registration  proceeded ;  and  in  the  meantime  the 
greatest  event  in  the  history  of  the  world  had  taken  place.  We 
never  know  where  a  great  beginning  may  be  happening.  Every 
arrival  of  a  new  soul  in  the  world  is  a  mystery  and  a  shut  casket 
of  possibilities.  Joseph  and  Mary  alone  knew  the  tremendous 
secret — that  on  her,  the  peasant  maiden  and  carpenter's  bride, 
had  been  conferred  the  honour  of  being  the  mother  of  Him  who 
was  the  Messiah  of  her  race,  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  and  the 
Son  of  God. 


BIRTH,  INFANCY,  AND  YOUTH.  1 3 

5.  It  had  been  foretold  in  ancient  prophecy  that  He  should  be 
born  on  this  very  spot:  '  But  thou,  Bethlehem  Ephratah,  though 
thou  be  little  among  the  thousands  of  Judah,  yet  out  of  thee  shall 
He  come  forth  unto  me  that  is  to  be  ruler  in  Israel.'  The  proud 
emperor's  decree  drove  southward  the  anxious  couple.  Yes  ; 
but  another  hand  was  leading  them  on — the  hand  of  Him  who 
overrules  the  purposes  of  emperors  and  kings,  of  statesmen  and 
parliaments,  for  the  accomplishment  of  His  designs,  though  they 
know  them  not ;  who  hardened  the  heart  of  Pharaoh,  called 
Cyrus  like  a  slave  to  His  foot,  made  the  mighty  Nebuchadnezzar 
His  servant,  and  in  the  same  way  could  overrule  for  His  own 
far-reaching  purpose  the  pride  and  ambition  of  Augustus. 

6.  The  Group  round  the  Infant. — Although  Jesus  made  His  entry 
on  the  stage  of  life  so  humbly  and  silently  ;  although  the 
citizens  of  Bethlehem  dreamed  not  what  had  happened  in  their 
midst ;  although  the  emperor  at  Rome  knew  not  that  his  decree 
had  influenced  the  nativity  of  a  King  who  was  yet  to  bear  rule, 
not  only  over  the  Roman  world,  but  over  many  a  land  where 
Rome's  eagles  never  flew  ;  although  the  history  of  mankind  went 
thundering  forward  next  morning  in  the  channels  of  its  ordinary 
interests,  quite  unconscious  of  the  event  whicli  had  happened, 
yet  it  did  not  altogether  escape  notice.  As  the  babe  leaped  in 
the  womb  of  the  aged  Elizabeth  when  the  mother  of  her  Lord 
approached  her,  so,  when  He  who  brought  the  new  world  with 
llim  appeared,  there  sprang  up  anticipations  and  forebodings  of 
the  truth  in  various  representatives  of  the  old  world  that  was 
passing  away.  There  went  through  sensitive  and  waiting  souls, 
here  and  there,  a  dim  and  half-conscious  thrill,  which  drew  them 
round  the  Infant's  cradle.  Look  at  the  group  which  gathered  to 
gaze  on  Him  !  It  represented  in  miniature  the  whole  of  His 
luture  history. 

7.  First  came  the  Shepherds  from  the  neighbouring  fields. 
That  which  was  unnoticed  by  the  kings  and  great  ones  of  this 
world,  was  so  absorbing  a  theme  to  the  princes  of  heaven,  tliaJ 


14  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

they  burst  the  bounds  of  the  invisibility  in  which  they  shroud 
themselves,  in  order  to  express  their  joy  and  explain  the  sig- 
nificance ot  the  great  event.  And  seeking  the  most  worthy 
hearts  to  which  they  might  communicate  it,  they  found  them  in 
these  simple  shepherds,  living  the  life  of  contemplation  and 
prayer  in  the  suggestive  fields  where  Jacob  had  kept  his  flocks, 
where  Boaz  and  Ruth  had  been  wedded,  and  David,  the  great 
Old  Testament  type,  had  spent  his  youth,  and  there,  by  the 
study  of  the  secrets  and  needs  of  their  own  hearts,  learning  far 
more  of  the  nature  of  the  Saviour  who  was  to  come  than  the 
Pharisee  amidst  the  religious  pomp  of  the  temple,  or  the  scribe 
burrowing  without  the  seeing  eye  among  the  prophecies  of  the 
Old  Testament.  The  angel  directed  them  where  the  Saviour 
was,  and  they  hastened  to  the  town  to  find  Him.  They  were 
the  representatives  of  the  peasant  people,  with  the  *  honest  and 
good  heart,'  who  afterwards  formed  the  bulk  of  His  disciples. 

8.  Next  to  them  came  Simeon  and  Anna,  the  representatives 
of  the  devout  and  intelligent  students  of  the  Scriptures,  who  at 
that  time  were  expecting  the  appearance  of  the  Messiah,  and 
afterwards  contributed  some  of  His  most  faithful  followers.  On 
the  eighth  day  after  His  birth,  the  Child  was  circumcised,  thus 
being  '  made  under  the  law,'  entering  into  the  covenant,  and 
inscribing  His  name  in  His  own  blood  in  the  roll  of  the  nation. 
Soon  thereafter,  when  the  days  of  Mary's  purification  were 
ended,  they  carried  Him  from  Bethlehem  to  Jerusalem  to  present 
Him  to  the  Lord  in  the  temple.  It  was  'the  Lord  of  the  temple 
entering  the  temple  of  the  Lord ;'  but  few  visitors  to  the  spot 
could  have  been  less  noticed  by  the  priests,  for  Mary,  instead  of 
offering  the  sacrifice  usual  in  such  cases,  could  only  afford  two 
turtle  doves,  the  offering  of  the  poor.  Yet  there  were  eyes 
looking  on,  undazzled  by  the  shows  and  glitter  of  the  world,  from 
which  His  poverty  could  not  conceal  Him.  Simeon,  an  aged 
saint,  who  in  answer  to  many  prayers  had  received  a  secret 
promise  that  he  should  not  die  till  he  had  seen  the  Messiah,  met 
the  parents  and  the  child,  when  suddenly  it  shot  through  him 


BIRTH,  INFANCY,  AND  YOUTH.  1 5 

like  a  flash  of  lightning  that  this  at  last  was  He,  and,  taking  Him 
up  in  his  arms,  he  praised  God  for  the  advent  of  the  Light  to 
lighten  the  Gentiles  and  the  Glory  of  His  people  Israel.  While 
he  was  still  speaking,  another  witness  joined  the  group.  It  was 
Anna,  a  saintly  widow,  who  literally  dwelt  in  the  courts  of  the 
Lord,  and  had  purified  the  eye  of  her  spirit  with  the  euphrasy 
and  rue  of  prayer  and  fasting  till  it  could  pierce  with  prophetic 
glance  the  veils  of  sense.  She  united  her  testimony  to  the  old 
man's,  praising  God  and  confirming  the  mighty  secret  to  the 
other  expectant  souls  who  were  looking  for  redemption  in 
Israel. 

9.  The  shepherds  and  these  aged  saints  were  near  the  spot 
where  the  new  force  entered  the  world.  But  it  thrilled  sus- 
ceptible souls  at  a  much  greater  distance.  It  was  probably  after 
the  presentation  in  the  temple  and  after  the  parents  had  carried 
back  their  child  to  Bethlehem,  where  it  was  their  intention  to 
reside  instead  of  returning  to  Nazareth,  that  He  was  visited  by 
the  Wise  Men  from  the  East.  These  were  members  of  the 
learned  class  of  the  Magians,  the  repositaries  of  science,  philo- 
sophy, medical  skill,  and  religious  mysteries  in  the  countries 
beyond  the  Euphrates.  Tacitus,  Suetonius,  and  Josephus  tell 
us  that  in  the  regions  from  whence  they  came,  there  then  pre- 
vailed an  expectation  that  a  great  king  was  to  arise  in  Judaea. 
We  know  also  from  the  calculations  of  the  great  astronomer 
Kepler,  that  at  this  very  time  there  was  visible  in  the  heavens  a 
brilliant  temporary  star.  Now  the  Rlagi  were  ardent  students 
of  astrology,  and  believed  that  any  unusual  phenomenon  in  the 
heavens  was  the  sign  of  some  remarkable  event  on  earth  ;  and  it 
is  possible  that,  connecting  this  star,  to  which  their  attention 
would  undoubtedly  be  eagerly  directed,  with  the  expectation  men- 
tioned by  the  ancient  historians,  they  were  led  westward  to  see 
if  it  had  been  fulfilled.  But  there  must  also  have  been  awakened 
in  them  a  deeper  want,  to  which  God  responded.  If  their  search 
began  in  scientific  curiosity  and  speculation,  God  led  it  on  to 
the  perfect  truth.     That  is  His  way  always.     Instead  of  making 


1 6  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

tirades  against  the  imperfect,  He  speaks  to  us  in  the  language 
we  understand,  even  if  it  express  His  meaning  very  imperfectly, 
and  guides  us  thereby  to  the  perfect  truth.  Just  as  He  used 
astrology  to  lead  the  world  to  astronomy,  and  alchemy  to  conduct 
it  to  chemistry,  and  as  the  Revival  of  Learning  preceded  the 
Reformation,  so  He  used  the  knowledge  of  these  men,  which  was 
half  falsehood  and  superstition,  to  lead  them  to  the  Light  of  the 
world.  Their  visit  was  a  prophecy  of  how  in  future  the  Gentile 
world  would  hail  His  doctrine  and  salvation,  and  bring  its 
wealth  and  talents,  its  science  and  philosophy,  to  offer  at  His 
feet. 

lo.  All  these  gathered  round  His  cradle  to  worship  the  Holy 
Child, — the  shepherds  with  their  simple  wonder,  Simeon  and  Anna 
with  a  reverence  enriched  by  the  treasured  wisdom  and  piety  ol 
centuries,  and  the  Magi  with  the  lavish  gifts  of  the  Orient  and  the 
open  brow  of  Gentile  knowledge.  But  while  these  worthy  worship- 
pers were  gazing  down  on  Him,  there  came  and  looked  over  theif 
shoulders  a  sinister  and  murderous  face.  It  was  the  face  of  Herod 
This  prince  then  occupied  the  throne  of  the  country, — the  throne 
of  David  and  the  Maccabees.  But  he  was  an  alien  and  low-born 
usurper.  His  subjects  hated  him,  and  it  was  only  by  Roman 
favour  that  he  was  maintained  in  his  seat.  He  was  able,  ambi- 
tious, and  magnificent.  Yet  he  had  such  a  cruel,  crafty,  gloomy, 
and  filthy  mind  as  you  must  go  among  Oriental  tyrants  to  meet 
with.  He  had  been  guilty  of  every  crime.  He  had  made  his 
very  palace  swim  in  blood,  having  murdered  his  own  favourite 
wife,  three  of  his  sons,  and  many  others  of  his  relatives.  He  was 
now  old  and  tortured  with  disease,  remorse,  the  sense  of  unpopu- 
larity, and  a  cruel  terror  of  every  possible  aspirant  to  the  throne 
which  he  had  usurped.  The  Magi  had  naturally  turned  their 
steps  to  the  capital,  to  inquire  where  He  was  to  be  born  whose 
sign  they  had  seen  in  the  East.  The  suggestion  touched  Heiod 
in  his  sorest  place ;  but  with  diabolical  hypocrisy  he  concealed 
his  suspicions.  Having  learned  from  the  priests  that  the 
Messiah  was  to  be  born  in  Bethlehem,  he  directed  the  strangers 


BIRTH,  INFANCY,  AND  YOUTH.  17 

ihithcr,  but  arranged  that  they  should  return  and  tell  him  the 
very  house  where  the  new  King  was.  He  hoped  to  cut  Him  off 
at  a  single  blow.  But  he  was  foiled  ;  for,  being  warned  by  God, 
they  did  not  come  back  to  tell  him,  but  returned  to  their  own 
country  another  way.  Then  his  fury  burst  forth  like  a  storm, 
and  he  sent  his  soldiers  to  murder  every  babe  under  two  years 
of  age  in  Bethlehem.  As  well  might  he  have  attempted  to  cut 
a  mountain  of  adamant  asunder  as  thus  to  cut  the  chain  of  the 
divine  purposes.  '  He  thrust  his  sword  into  the  nest,  but  the  bird 
was  flown.'  Joseph  fled  with  the  Child  to  Egypt,  and  remained 
there  till  Herod  died,  when  he  returned  and  dwelt  at  Nazareth  ; 
being  warned  from  Bethlehem,  because  there  he  would  have  been 
in  the  kingdom  of  Archelaus,  the  like-minded  son  of  his  blood- 
thirsty father.  Herod's  murderous  face,  glaring  down  on  the 
Infant,  was  a  sad  prophecy  of  how  the  powers  of  the  world 
would  persecute  Him  and  cut  off  His  life  from  the  earth. 

11.  The  Silent  Tears  at  Nazareth. — The  records  which  we  possess 
dp  to  this  point  are,  as  we  have  seen,  comparatively  full.  But 
with  the  settlement  at  Nazareth,  after  the  return  from  Egypt, 
our  information  comes  to  a  sudden  stop,  and  over  the  rest  of  the 
life  of  Jesus,  till  His  public  ministry  begins,  a  thick  covering  is 
drawn,  which  is  only  lifted  once.  We  should  have  wished  the 
narrative  to  continue  with  the  same  fulness  through  the  years  of 
His  boyhood  and  youth.  In  modern  biographies  there  are  few 
parts  more  interesting  than  the  anecdotes  which  they  furnish  of 
the  childhood  of  their  subjects,  for  in  these  we  can  often  see  in 
miniature  and  in  charming  simplicity  the  character  and  the  plan 
of  the  future  life.  What  would  we  not  give  to  know  the  habits, 
the  friendships,  the  thoughts,  the  words,  and  the  actions  of  Jesus 
during  so  many  years  ?  Only  one  flower  of  anecdote  has  been 
thrown  over  the  Avail  of  the  hidden  garden,  and  it  is  so  exquisite 
as  to  fill  us  with  intense  longing  to  sec  the  garden  itself.  But  it 
has  pleased  God,  whose  silence  is  no  less  wonderful  than  His 
words,  to  keep  it  shut. 

B 


l8  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

12.  It  was  natural  that,  where  God  was  silent  and  curiosit? 
was  strong,  the  fancy  of  man  should  attempt  to  fill  up  the  blank. 
Accordingly,  in  the  early  Church  there  appeared  Apocryphal 
Gospels,  pretending  to  give  full  details  where  the  inspired  Gospels 
were  silent.  They  are  particularly  full  of  the  sayings  and  doings 
of  the  childhood  of  Jesus.  But  they  only  show  how  unequal  the 
human  imagination  was  to  such  a  theme,  and  bring  out  by  the 
contrast  of  glitter  and  caricature  the  solidity  and  truthfulness  of 
the  Scripture  narrative.  They  make  Him  a  worker  of  frivolous 
and  useless  marvels,  who  moulded  birds  of  clay  and  made  them 
fly,  changed  His  playmates  into  kids,  and  so  forth.  In  short, 
they  are  compilations  of  worthless  and  often  blasphemous  fables. 

13.  These  grotesque  failures  warn  us  not  to  intrude  with  the 
suggestions  of  fancy  into  the  hallowed  enclosure.  It  is  enough 
to  know  that  He  grew  in  wisdom  and  stature,  and  in  favour  with 
God  and  man.  He  was  a  real  child  and  youth,  and  passed 
through  all  the  stages  of  a  natural  development.  Body  and 
mind  grew  together,  the  one  expanding  to  manly  vigour,  and  the 
other  acquiring  more  and  more  knowledge  and  power.  His 
opening  character  exhibited  a  grace  that  made  every  one  who 
saw  it  wonder  and  love  its  goodness  and  purity. 

14.  But  though  we  are  forbidden  to  let  the  fancy  loose  here, 
we  are  not  prohibited,  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  our  duty,  to 
make  use  of  such  authentic  materials  as  are  supplied  by  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  time,  or  by  incidents  of  His  later 
life  which  refer  back  to  His  earlier  years,  in  order  to  connect  the 
infancy  with  the  period  when  the  narrative  of  the  Gospels  again 
takes  up  the  thread  of  biography.  It  is  possible  in  this  way  to 
gain,  at  least  in  some  degree,  a  true  conception  of  what  He  was 
as  a  boy  and  a  young  man,  and  what  were  the  influences  amidst 
which  His  development  proceeded  through  so  many  silent  years. 

15.  We  know  amidst  what  kind  of  home  influences  He  was 
brought  up.  His  home  was  one  of  those  which  were  the  glory  of 
Jlis  country,  as  they  are  of  our  own — the  abodes  of  the  godly  and 


BIRTH,  INP'ANCY,  AND  YOUTH.  ig 

intelligent  working  class.  Joseph,  its  head,  was  a  man  saintly 
and  wise  ;  but  the  fact  that  he  is  not  mentioned  in  Christ's  after- 
life has  generally  been  believed  to  indicate  that  he  died  during 
the  youth  of  Jesus,  perhaps  leaving  the  care  of  the  household  on 
His  shoulders.  His  mother  probably  exercised  the  most  decisive 
of  all  external  influences  on  His  development.  What  she  was 
may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  she  was  chosen  from  all  the 
women  of  the  world  to  be  crowned  with  the  supreme  honour  of 
womanhood.  The  song  which  she  poured  forth  on  the  subject 
of  her  own  great  destiny  shows  her  to  have  been  a  woman 
religious,  fervently  poetical,  and  patriotic  ;  a  student  of  Scripture, 
and  especially  of  its  great  women,  for  it  is  saturated  with  Old 
Testament  ideas,  and  moulded  on  Hannah's  song  ;  a  spirit 
exquisitely  humble,  yet  capable  of  thoroughly  appreciating  the 
honour  conferred  upon  her.  She  was  no  miraculous  queen  of 
iieaven,  as  superstition  has  caricatured  her,  but  a  woman  exqui- 
sitely pure,  saintly,  loving,  and  high-souled.  This  is  aureole 
enough.     Jesus  grew  up  in  her  love  and  passionately  returned  it. 

i6.  There  were  other  inmates  ot  the  household.  He  had 
brothers  and  sisters.  From  two  of  them,  James  and  Jude,  we 
have  epistles  in  Holy  Scripture,  in  which  we  may  read  what  their 
character  was.  Perhaps  it  is  not  irreverent  to  infer  from  the 
severe  tone  of  their  epistles,  that,  in  their  unbelieving  state,  they 
must  have  been  somewhat  harsh  and  unsympathetic  men.  At 
all  events,  they  never  believed  on  Him  during  His  Hfetime,  and 
it  is  not  likely  that  they  were  close  companions  to  Him  in 
Nazareth.  He  was  probably  much  alone ;  and  the  pathos  of 
His  saying,  that  a  prophet  is  not  without  honour  save  in  his  own 
country  and  in  his  own  house,  probably  reached  back  into  the 
years  before  His  ministry  began. 

17.  He  received  His  education  at  home,  or  from  a  scribe 
attached  to  the  village  synagogue.  It  was  only,  however,  a  poor 
man's  education.  As  the  scribes  contemptuously  said.  He  had 
never  learned,  or,  as  we  should  say.  He  was  not  college-bred. 
No  ;   but  the  love  of  knowledge  was  early  awake  within  Him. 


20  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

He  daily  knew  the  joy  of  deep  and  happy  thought  ;  He  had  the 
best  of  all  keys  to  knowledge — the  open  mind  and  the  loving 
heart ;  and  the  three  great  books  lay  ever  open  before  Him — the 
Bible,  Man,  and  Nature. 

1 8.  It  is  easy  to  understand  with  what  fervent  enthusiasm  He 
would  devote  Himself  to  the  Old  Testament ;  and  His  sayings, 
u  hich  are  full  of  quotations  from  it,  afford  abundant  proof  of  how 
constantly  it  formed  the  food  of  His  mind  and  the  comfort  of  His 
soul.  His  youthful  study  of  it  was  the  secret  of  the  marvellous 
facility  with  which  he  made  use  of  it  afterwards  in  order  to 
enrich  His  preaching  and  enforce  His  doctrine,  to  repel  the 
assaults  of  opponents  and  overcome  the  temptations  of  the  Evil 
One.  His  quotations  also  show  that  He  read  it  in  the  original 
Hebrew,  and  not  in  the  Greek  translation,  which  was  then  in 
general  use.  The  Hebrew  was  a  dead  language  even  in  Pales- 
tine, just  as  Latin  now  is  in  Italy  ;  but  He  would  naturally  long 
to  read  it  in  the  very  words  in  which  it  was  written.  Those  who 
have  not  enjoyed  a  liberal  education,  but  amidst  many  difficulties 
have  mastered  Greek  in  order  to  read  their  New  Testament  in 
the  original,  will  perhaps  best  understand  how,  in  a  country 
village,  He  made  Himself  master  of  the  ancient  tongue,  and  with 
what  delight  He  was  wont,  in  the  rolls  of  the  synagogue  or  in 
such  manuscripts  as  He  may  have  Himself  possessed,  to  pore 
over  the  sacred  page.  The  language  in  which  He  thought  and 
spoke  familiarly  was  Aramaic,  a  branch  of  the  same  stem  to 
which  the  Hebrew  belongs.  We  have  fragments  of  it  in  some 
recorded  sayings  of  His,  such  as  'Talitha,  cumi,'  and  'Eloi,  Eloi, 
lama  sabachthani.'  He  would  have  the  same  chance  of  learning 
Greek  as  a  boy  born  in  the  Scottish  Highlands  has  of  learning 
English,  '  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles '  being  then  full  ot  Greek- 
speaking  inhabitants.  Thus  He  was  probably  master  of  three 
languages, — one  of  them  the  grand  religious  language  of  the 
world,  in  whose  literature  He  was  deeply  versed ;  another,  the 
most  perfect  means  of  expressing  secular  thought  which  has 
ever  existed,  although  there  is  no  evidence  that  He  had  any 


BIRTH,  INFANCY,  AND  YOUTH.  21 

acquaintance  with  the  masterpieces  of  Greek  literature  ;  and  the 
third,  the  language  of  the  common  people,  to  whom  His  preach- 
ing was  to  be  specially  addressed. 

19.  There  are  few  places  where  human  nature  can  be  better 
studied  than  in  a  country  village ;  for  there  one  sees  the  whole 
of  each  individual  life  and  knows  all  one's  neighbours  thoroughly. 
In  a  city  far  more  people  are  seen,  but  far  fewer  known ;  it  is 
only  the  outside  of  life  that  is  visible.  In  a  village  the  view 
outwards  is  circumscribed  ;  but  the  view  downwards  is  deep,  and 
the  view  upwards  unimpeded.  Nazareth  was  a  notoriously 
wicked  town,  as  we  learn  from  the  proverbial  question,  Can  any 
good  thing  come  out  of  Nazareth  ?  Jesus  had  no  acquaintance 
with  sin  in  His  own  soul,  but  in  the  town  He  had  a  full  exhibition 
of  the  awful  problem  with  which  it  was  to  be  His  life-work  to 
deal.  He  was  still  further  brought  into  contact  with  human 
nature  by  His  trade.  That  He  worked  as  a  carpenter  in 
Joseph's  shop  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Who  could  know  better 
than  His  own  townsmen,  who  asked,  in  their  astonishment  at  His 
preaching.  Is  not  this  the  carpenter  ?  It  would  be  difficult  to 
exhaust  the  significance  of  the  fact  that  God  chose  for  His  Son, 
when  He  dwelt  among  men,  out  of  all  the  possible  positions  in 
which  He  might  have  placed  Him,  the  lot  of  a  working  man. 
It  stamped  men's  common  toils  with  everlasting  honour.  It 
acquainted  Jesus  with  the  feelings  of  the  multitude,  and  helped  Him 
to  know  what  was  in  man.  It  was  afterwards  said  that  He  knew 
this  so  well  that  He  needed  not  that  any  man  should  teach  Him. 

20.  Travellers  tell  us  that  the  spot  where  He  grew  up  is  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Nazareth  is  situated 
in  a  secluded,  cup-like  valley  amid  the  mountains  of  Zebulon, 
just  where  they  dip  down  into  the  plain  of  Esdraelon,  with  which 
it  is  connected  by  a  steep  and  rocky  path.  Its  white  houses, 
with  vines  clinging  to  their  walls,  are  embowered  amidst  gardens 
and  groves  of  olive,  fig,  orange,  and  pomegranate  trees.  The 
fields  are  divided  by  hedges  of  cactus,  and  enamelled  with  in- 
numerable flowers  of  every  hue.     Behind  the  village  rises  a  hill 


82  THE  LiFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

five  hundred  feet  in  height,  from  whose  summit  there  is 
seen  one  of  the  most  wonderful  views  in  the  world  —  the 
mountains  of  Galilee,  with  snowy  Hermon  towering  above 
them,  to  the  north  ;  the  ridge  of  Carmel,  the  coast  of  Tyre, 
and  the  sparkling  waters  of  the  Mediterranean,  to  the  west ;  a 
few  miles  to  the  east,  the  wooded,  cone-like  bulk  of  Tabor  ;  and 
to  the  south,  the  plain  of  Esdraelon,  with  the  mountains  of 
Ephraim  beyond.  The  preaching  of  Jesus  shows  how  deeply 
He  had  drunk  into  the  essence  of  natural  beauty  and  revelled  in 
the  changing  aspects  of  the  seasons.  It  was  when  wandering 
as  a  lad  in  these  fields  that  He  gathered  the  images  of  beauty 
which  He  poured  out  in  His  parables  and  addresses.  It  was  on 
that  hill  that  He  acquired  the  habit  of  His  after-life  of  retreating 
I  to  the  mountain-tops  to  spend  the  night  in  solitary  prayer.  The 
doctrines  of  His  preaching  were  not  thought  out  on  the  spur  of 
the  moment.  They  were  poured  out  in  a  living  stream  when  the 
occasion  came,  but  the  water  had  been  gathering  into  the  hidden 
well  for  many  years  before.  In  the  fields  and  on  the  mountain- 
side he  had  thought  them  out  during  the  years  of  happy  and 
undisturbed  meditation  and  prayer. 

21.  There  is  still  one  important  educational  influence  to  be 
mentioned.  Every  year,  after  He  was  twelve  years  old,  He  went 
with  His  parents  to  the  Passover  at  Jerusalem.  Fortunately  we 
have  preserved  to  us  an  account  of  the  first  of  these  visits.  It  is 
the  only  occasion  on  which  the  veil  is  lifted  during  thirty  years. 
Every  one  who  can  remember  his  own  first  journey  from  a  village 
home  to  the  capital  of  his  country  will  understand  the  joy 
and  excitement  with  which  Jesus  set  out.  He  travelled  over 
eighty  miles  of  a  country  where  nearly  every  mile  teemed  with 
historical  and  inspiring  memories.  He  mingled  with  the  con- 
stantly growing  caravan  of  pilgrims,  who  were  filled  with  the 
religious  enthusiasm  of  the  great  ecclesiastical  event  of  the 
year.  His  destination  was  a  city  which  was  loved  by  every 
Jewish  heart  with  a  strength  of  affection  that  has  never  been 
given  to  any  other  capital — a  city  full  of  objects  and  memories 


EiRTH,   INFANXY,  AND  YOUTH.  23 

fitted  to  touch  the  deepest  springs  of  interest  and  emotion  in  his 
breast.  It  was  swarming  at  the  Passover-time  with  strangers 
from  half-a-hundred  countries,  speaking  as  many  languages  and 
wearing  as  many  different  costumes.  He  went  to  take  part  for 
the  first  time  in  an  ancient  solemnity  suggestive  of  countless 
patriotic  and  sacred  memories.  It  was  no  wonder  that,  when  the 
day  came  to  return  home,  He  was  so  excited  with  the  new  objects 
of  interest,  that  He  failed  to  join  His  party  at  the  appointed  place 
and  time.  One  spot  above  all  fascinated  His  interest.  It  was 
the  temple,  and  especially  tlie  school  there  in  which  the  masters 
of  wisdom  taught.  His  mind  was  teeming  with  questions  which 
these  doctors  might  be  asked  to  answer.  His  thirst  for  know- 
ledge had  an  opportunity  for  the  first  time  to  drink  its  fill.  So  it 
was  there  His  anxious  parents,  who,  missing  Him  after  a  day's 
journey  northward,  returned  in  anxiety  to  seek  Him,  found  Him, 
listening  with  excited  looks  to  the  oracles  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
day.  His  answer  to  the  reproachful  question  of  His  mother  lays 
bare  His  childhood's  mind,  and  for  a  moment  affords  a  wide 
glance  over  the  thoughts  which  used  to  engross  Him  in  the  fields 
of  Nazareth.  It  shows  that  already,  though  so  young,  He  had 
risen  above  the  great  mass  of  men,  who  drift  on  through  life 
without  once  inquiring  what  may  be  its  meaning  and  its  end. 
He  was  aware  that  He  had  a  God-appointed  life-work  to  do,  I 
which  it  was  the  one  business  of  His  existence  to  accomplish.  I 
It  was  the  passionate  thought  of  all  His  after-life.  It  ought  to' 
be  the  first  and  last  thought  of  every  life.  It  recurred  again  and 
again  in  His  later  sayings,  and  pealed  itself  finally  forth  in  the 
word  with  which  He  closed  His  career, — It  is  finished  ! 

22.  It  has  often  been  asked  whether  Jesus  knew  all  along  that 
He  was  the  Messiah,  and,  if  not,  when  and  how  the  knowledge  1 
dawned  upon  Him ;  whether  it  was  suggested  by  hearing  from  r 
His  mother  the  story  of  His  birth,  or  announced  to  Him  from  / 
within.  Did  it  dawn  upon  Him  all  at  once,  or  gradually  ?  When 
did  the  plan  of  His  career,  which  He  carried  out  so  unhcsitat-  ^ 
ingly  from  the  beginning  of   His  ministry,  shape  itself  in  His 


24  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

mind  ?  Was  it  the  slow  result  of  years  of  reflection,  or  did  it 
come  to  Him  at  once?  These  questions  have  occupied  the 
greatest  Christian  minds  and  received  very  various  answers.  I 
will  not  venture  to  answer  them,  and  especially  with  His  reply 
to  His  mother  before  me,  I  cannot  trust  myself  even  to  think  of 
a  time  when  He  did  not  know  what  His  work  in  this  world 
was  to  be. 

23.  His  subsequent  visits  to  Jerusalem  must  have  greatly 
influenced  the  development  of  His  mind.  If  He  often  went  back 
to  hear  and  question  the  rabbis  in  the  temple  schools,  He  must 
soon  have  discovered  how  shallow  was  their  far-famed  learning. 
It  was  probably  on  these  annual  visits  that  He  discovered  the 
utter  corruption  of  the  religion  of  the  day  and  the  need  of  a 
radical  reform  of  both  doctrine  and  practice,  and  marked  the 
practices  and  the  persons  that  He  was  by  and  by  to  assail  with 
the  vehemence  of  His  holy  indignation. 

24.  Such  were  the  external  conditions  amidst  which  the  manhood 
of  Jesus  waxed  towards  maturity.  It  would  be  easy  to  exaggerate 
the  influence  which  they  may  be  supposed  to  have  exerted  on  his 
development.  The  greater  and  more  original  a  character  is,  the 
less  dependent  is  it  on  the  peculiarities  of  its  environment.  It 
is  fed  from  deep  well-springs  within  itself,  and  in  its  germ  there 
is  a  type  enclosed  which  expands  in  obedience  to  its  own  laws 
and  bids  defiance  to  circumstances.  In  any  other  circumstances, 
Jesus  would  have  grown  to  be  in  every  important  respect  the 
very  same  person  as  He  became  in  Nazareth. 


CHAPTER     11. 

THE  2\ATI0i\  AND  THE  TIME. 

Paragraphs  25-53. 

26-39.  The  Theatre  of  His  Life. 

27.  The  PoUtical  Condition  of  the  Country. 

28-38.   Its  Religious  and  Social  Condition — 

28,  29.  External  Religiosity  but  Inner  Decline , 
30.  Pharisees;  31.  Scribes;  32.  Sadducees  and 
Herodians  ;  33.  Different  Classes  of  Society  ; 
35-38.  Messianic  Hopes. 

40  53.  The  Two  Final  Stages  of  His  Preparation. 

44-49.   His  Baptism — 

45.   The  Baptist;  46-48.  Jesus  Baptized  ;  49.  The 
Descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
50-53.   The  Temptation. 


CHATTER    H. 

THE  NATION  AND  THE  TIME, 

25.  We  how  approach  the  time  when,  after  thirty  years  of 
silence  and  obscurity  in  Nazareth,  Jesus  was  to  step  forth  on  the 
public  stage.  This  is  therefore  the  place  at  which  to  take  a 
survey  of  the  circumstances  of  the  nation  in  whose  midst  His 
work  was  to  be  done,  and  also  to  form  a  clear  conception  of  His 
character  and  aims.  Every  great  biography  is  the  record  of  the 
entrance  into  the  world  of  a  new  force,  bringing  with  it  something 
different  from  all  that  was  there  before,  and  of  the  way  in  which  it 
gradually  gets  itself  incorporated  with  the  old,  so  as  to  become 
a  part  of  the  future.  Obviously,  therefore,  two  things  are  needed 
by  those  who  wish  to  understand  it, — first,  a  clear  comprehension 
of  the  nature  of  the  new  force  itself ;  and  secondly,  a  view  of  the 
world  with  which  it  is  to  be  incorporated.  Without  the  lattei 
the  specific  difference  of  the  former  cannot  be  understood,  nor 
can  the  manner  of  its  reception  be  appreciated, — the  welcome 
with  which  it  is  received,  or  the  opposition  with  which  it  has  to 
struggle.  Jesus  brought  with  Him  into  the  world  more  that 
was  original  and  destined  to  modify  the  future  history  of  man- 
kind than  any  one  else  who  has  ever  entered  it.  But  we  can 
neither  understand  Him  nor  the  fortunes  which  He  encountered 
in  seeking  to  incorporate  with  history  the  gift  He  brought,  without 
a  clear  view  of  the  condition  of  the  sphere  within  which  His  life 
was  to  be  passed. 


28  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST, 

26.  The  Tlieatre  of  His  Life. — When,  having  finished  the  last 
chapter  of  the  Old  Testament,  we  turn  over  the  leaf  and  see  the 
first  chapter  of  the  New,  we  are  very  apt  to  think  that  in  Matthew 
we  are  still  among  the  same  people  and  the  same  state  of  things 
as  we  have  left  in  Malachi.  But  no  idea  could  be  more  erroneous. 
Four  centuries  elapsed  between  Malachi  and  Matthew,  and 
wrought  as  total  a  change  in  Palestine  as  a  period  of  the  same 
length  has  almost  ever  wrought  in  any  country.  The  very 
language  of  the  people  had  been  changed,  and  customs,  ideas, 
parties,  and  institutions  had  come  into  existence  which  would 
almost  have  prevented  Malachi,  if  he  had  risen  from  the  dead, 
from  recognising  his  country. 

27.  Politically  the  nation  had  passed  through  extraordinary 
vicissitudes.  After  the  Exile  it  had  been  organized  as  a  kind  o( 
sacred  state  under  its  high  priests ;  but  conqueror  after  conqueror 
had  since  marched  over  it,  changing  everything  ;  the  old  heredi- 
tary monarchy  had  been  restored  for  a  time  by  the  brave 
Maccabees  ;  the  battle  of  freedom  had  many  times  been  won 
and  lost ;  a  usurper  had  sat  on  the  throne  of  David  ;  and  now  at 
last  the  country  was  completely  under  the  mighty  Roman  power, 
which  had  extended  its  sway  over  the  whole  civilised  world. 
It  was  divided  into  several  small  portions,  which  the  foreigner 
held  under  different  tenures,  as  the  English  at  present  hold 
India.  Galilee  and  Perasa  were  ruled  by  petty  kings,  sons  of 
that  Herod  under  whom  Jesus  was  born,  who  occupied  a  relation 
to  the  Roman  emperor  similar  to  that  which  the  subject  Indian 
kings  hold  to  our  Queen  ;  and  Judsea  was  under  the  charge  of  a 
Roman  official,  a  subordinate  of  the  governor  of  the  Roman 
province  of  Syria,  who  held  h.  relation  to  that  functionary  similar 
to  that  which  the  Governor  of  Bombay  holds  to  the  Governor- 
General  at  Calcutta.  Roman  soldiers  paraded  the  streets  ol 
Jerusalem ;  Roman  standards  waved  over  the  fastnesses  of  the 
country  ;  Roman  tax-gatherers  sat  at  the  gate  ol  every  town. 
To  the  Sanhedrim,  the  supreme  Jewish  organ  of  government,  only 
a  shadow  of  power  was  still  conceded,  its  presidents,  the  high 


THE  NATION  AND  THE  TIME.  29 

pticsts,  being  mere  puppets  of  Rome,  set  up  and  put  down  uilli 
tlic  utmost  caprice.  So  low  had  the  proud  nation  fallen  whose 
ideal  it  had  ever  been  to  rule  the  world,  and  whose  patriotism 
was  a  religious  and  national  passion  as  intense  and  unquench- 
able as  ever  burned  in  any  country. 

28.  In  religion  the  changes  had  been  equally  great,  and  the 
fall  equally  low.  In  external  appearance,  indeed,  it  might  have 
seemed  as  if  progress  had  been  made  instead  of  retrogression. 
The  nation  was  far  more  orthodox  than  it  had  been  at  many 
earlier  periods  of  its  history.  Once  its  chief  danger  had  been 
idolatry  ;  but  the  chastisement  of  the  Exile  had  corrected  that 
tendency  for  ever,  and  thenceforward  the  Jews,  wherever  they 
might  be  living,  were  uncompromising  monotheists.  The  priestly 
orders  and  offices  had  been  thoroughly  reorganized  after  the 
return  from  Babylon,  and  the  temple  services  and  annual  feasts 
continued  to  be  observed  at  Jerusalem  with  strict  regularity. 
Besides,  a  new  and  most  important  religious  institution  had 
arisen,  which  almost  threw  the  temple  with  its  priesthood  into 
the  background.  This  was  the  synagogue  with  its  rabbis.  It 
docs  not  seem  to  have  existed  in  ancient  times  at  all,  but  was 
called  into  existence  after  the  Exile  by  reverence  for  the  written 
Word.  Synagogues  were  multiplied  wherever  Jews  lived  ;  every 
S.'ibbailviiiey^v^re  filled  with  praying  congregatioris ;  exhortations 
were  deliveredjby^the  rabbis — a  new  order  created  by  the  need  of 
expounders  to  translate  from  the  Hebrew,  which  had  become  a 
dead  language  ;  and  nearly  the  whole  Old  Testament  was  read 
over  once  a  year  in  the  hearing  of  the  people.  Schools  of  theology, 
similar  to  our  divinity  halls,  had  sprung  up,  in  which  the  rabbis 
were  trained  and  the  sacred  books  interpreted. 

29.  But,  in^s^ite  of  all  this  religiosity,  religion  Jiad  sadly 
declinejl.  The  externals  had  been  multiplied,  but  the  inner 
spirit  had  disappeared.  However  rude  and  sinful  the  old  nation 
had  sometimes  been,  it  was  capable  in  its  worst  periods  of  pro- 
ducing majestic  religious  figures,  who  kept  high  the  ideal  of  life 
and  preserved  the  connection  of  the  nation  with  Heaven  ;  and  the 


30  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

inspired  voices  of  the  prophets  kept  the  stream  of  truth  running 
fresh  and  clean.  But  during  four  hundred  years  no  prophet's 
voice  had  been  heard.  The  records  of  the  old  prophetic  utter- 
ances were  still  preserved  with  almost  idolatrous  reverence,  but 
there  were  not  men  with  even  the  necessary  amount  of  the 
Spirit's  inspiration  to  understand  what  He  had  formerly  written. 

30.  The  representative  religious  men  of  the  time  were  the 
Pharisees.  As  their  name  indicates,  they  originally  arose  as 
champions  of  the  separate^iess  of  the  Jews  from  other  nations. 
This  was  a  noble  idea,/so  long  as  the  distinction  emphasized 
was  holiness.  But  it  is  far  more  difficult  to  maintain  this 
distinction  than  sdch  external  differences  as  peculiarities  of 
dress,  food,  language,  etc.  These  were  in  course  of  time  sub- 
stituted for  it.  The  Pharisees  were  ardent  patriots,  ever  willing 
to  lay  down  their  lives  for  the  independence  of  their  country, 
and  hating  the  foreign  yoke  with  impassioned  bitterness.  They 
despised  and  hated  other  races,  and  clung  with  undying  faith  to 
the  hope  of  a  glorious  future  for  their  nation.  But  they  had  so 
long  harped  on  this  idea,  that  they  had  come  to  believe  themselves 
the  special  favourites  of  Heaven,  simply  because  they  were 
descendants  of  Abraham,  and  to  lose  sight  of  the  importance  of 
personal  character.  They  multiplied  their  Jewish  peculiarities, 
but  substituted  external  observances,  such  as  fasts,  prayers, 
tithes,  washings,  sacrifices,  and  so  forth,  for  the  grand  distinc- 
tions of  love  to  God  and  love  to  man. 

31.  To  the  Pharisaic  party  belonged  most  of  the  scribes.  They 
were  so  called  because  they  were  both  the  interpreters  and 
copyists  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  lawyers  of  the  people  ;  for,  the 
Jewish  legal  code  being  incorporated  in  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
jurisprudence  became  a  branch  of  theology.  They  were  the 
chieTMriterpreters  in  the  synagogues,  although  any  male  wor- 
shipper was  permitted  to  speak  if  he  chose.  They  professed 
unbounded  reverence  for  the  Scriptures,  counting  every  word 
and  letter  in  them.  They  had  a  splendid  opportunity  of 
diffusing   the  religious  principles  of  the  Old  Testament  among 


THE  NATION  AND  THE  TIME.  3  I 

the  people,  exhibiting  the  glorious  examples  of  its  heroes 
and  sowing  abroad  the  words  of  the  prophets ;  for  the  synagOj,nie 
was  one  of  the  most  potent  engines  of  instruction  ever  de- 
vised by  any  people.  But  they  entirely  missed  their  opportunity. 
They  became  a  dry  ecclesiastical  and  scholastic  class,  using 
their  position  for  selfish  aggrandisement,  and  scorning  those  to 
whom  they  gave  stones  for  bjxad^as  a  vulgar  and  unlettered 
canaille.  Whatever  was  most  spiritual,  living,  human,  and  grand 
in  the  Scriptures  they  passed  by.  Generation  after  generation 
/the  commentaries  of  their  famous  men  multiplied,  and  the  pupils 
studied  the  commentaries  instead  of  the  text.  Moreover,  it  was 
a  rule  with  them  that  the  correct  interpretation  of  a  passage  was 
as  authoritative  as  the  text  itself;  and,  the  interpretations  of 
the  famous  masters  being  as  a  matter  of  course  believed  to  be 
correct,  the  mass  of  opinions  which  were  held  to  be  as  precious 
as  the  Bible  itself  grew  to  enormous  proportions.  These  were 
'  the  traditions_of  the  elders.'  By  degrees  an  arbitrary  system 
of  exegesis  came  into  vogue,  by  which  almost  any  opinion  what- 
ever could  be  thus  connected  with  some  text  and  stamped  with 
divine  authority.  Every  new  invention  of  Pharisaic  peculiarities 
was  sanctioned  in  this  way.  These  were  multiplied  until  they 
regulated  every  detail  of  life,  personal,  domestic,  social,  and 
public.  They  became  so  numerous,  that  it  required  a  lifetime 
to  learn  them  all  ;  and  the  learning  of  a  scribe  consisted  in 
acquaintance  with  them,  and  with  the  dicta  of  the  great  rabbis 
and  the  forms  of  exegesis  by  which  they  were  sanctioned.  This 
was  the  chaff  with  which  they  fed  the  people  in  the  synagogues- 
The  conscience  was  burdened  with  innumerable  details,  every 
one  of  which  was  represented  to  be  as  divinely  sanctioned  as  any 
of  the  ten  commandments.  This  was  the  intolerable  burden 
which  Peter  said  neither  he  nor  his  fathers  had  been  able  to  bear. 
This  was  the  horrible  nightmare  which  sat  so  long  on  Paul's 
conscience.  But  worse  consequences  flowed  from  it.  It  is  a 
well-lcnown  principle  in  history,  that,  whenever  the  ceremonial  is 
elevated  to  the  same  rank  with  the  moral,  the  latter  will  soon  be 


32  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

lost  sight  of.  The  scribes  and  Pharisees  had  learned  how  by 
arbitrary  exegesis  and  casuistical  discussion  to  explain  away  the 
weightiest  moral  obligations,  and  make  up  for  the  neglect  of  them 
by  increasing  their  ritual  observances.  Thus  men  were  able  to 
flaunt  in  the  pride  of  sanctity  while  indulging  their  selfishness 
and  vile  passions.  Society  was  rotten  with  vice  within,  and 
veneered  over  with  a  self-deceptive  religiosity  without. 

32.  There  was  a  party  of  protest.  The  Sadducees  impugned 
the  authority  attached  to  the  traditions  of  the  fathers,  demanding 
a  return  to  the  Bible  and  nothing  but  the  Bible,  and  cried  out 
for  morality  in  place  of  ritual.  But  their  protest  was  prompted 
merely  by  the  spirit  of  denial,  and  not  by  a  warm  opposite  prin- 
ciple of  religion.  They  were  sceptical,  cold-hearted,  worldly 
men.  Though  they  praised  morality,  it  was  a  morality  un- 
warmed  and  unilluminated  by  any  contact  with  that  upper  region 
of  divine  forces  from  which  the  inspiration  of  the  highest 
morality  must  always  come.  They  refused  to  burden  their  con- 
sciences with  the  painful  punctilios  of  the  Pharisees  ;  but  it  was 
because  they  wished  to  live  the  life  of  comfort  and  self-indul- 
gence. They  ridiculed  the  Pharisaic  exclusiveness,  but  had  let 
go  what  was  most  peculiar  in  the  character,  the  faith,  and  the 
hopes  of  their  nation.  They  mingled  freely  with  the  Gentiles, 
affected  Greek  culture,  enjoyed  foreign  amusements,  and  thought 
it  useless  to  fight  for  the  freedom  of  their  country.  An  extreme 
section  of  them  were  the  Herodians,  who  had  given  in  to  the 
usurpation  of  Herod,  and  with  courtly  flattery  attached  them- 
selves to  the  favour  of  his  sons. 

33.  The  Sadducees  belonged  chiefly  to  the  upper  and  wealthy 
classes.  The  Pharisees  and  scribes  formed  what  we  should  call 
the  middle  class,  although  also  deriving  many  members  from 
the  higher  ranks  of  life.  The  lower  classes  and  the  country 
people  were  separated  by  a  great  gulf  from  their  wealthy  neigh- 
bours, but  attached  themselves  by  admiration  to  the  Pharisees, 
as  the  uneducated  always  do  to  the  party  of  warmth.  Down 
below  all  these  was  a  large  class  of  those  who  had  lost  all  con- 


THE  NATION  AND  THE  TIME.  33 

nection  with  religion  and  well-ordered  social  life — the  publicans, 
harlots,  and  sinners,  for  whose  souls  no  man  cared. 

34.  Such  were  the  pitiable  features  of  the  society  on  which 
Jesus  was  about  to  discharge  His  influence, — a  nation  enslaved  ; 
the  upper  classes  devoting  themselves  to  selfishness,  courtiership, 
and  scepticism  ;  the  teachers  and  chief  professors  of  religion  lost 
in  mere  shows  of  ceremonialism,  and  boasting  themselves  the 
favourites  of  God,  while  their  souls  were  honeycombed  with  self- 
deception  and  vice ;  the  body  of  the  people  misled  by  false 
ideals  ;  and,  seething  at  the  bottom  of  society,  a  neglected  mass 
of  unblushing  and  unrestrained  sin. 

35.  And  this  was  the  people  of  God  !  Yes  ;  in  spite  of 
their  awful  degradation,  these  were  the  children  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  the  heirs  of  the  covenant  and  the 
promises.  Away  back  beyond  the  centuries  of  degradation 
towered  the  figures  of  the  patriarchs,  the  kings  after  God's  own 
heart,  the  psalmists,  the  prophets,  the  generations  of  faith  and 
hope.  Ay,  and  in  front  there  was  greatness  too  !  The  word  of 
God,  once  sent  forth  from  heaven  and  uttered  by  the  mouths  of 
His  prophets,  could  not  return  to  Him  void.  He  had  said  that 
to  this  nation  was  to  be  given  the  perfect  revelation  of  Himself, 
that  in  it  was  to  appear  the  perfect  ideal  of  manhood,  and  that 
from  it  was  to  issue  forth  the  regeneration  of  all  mankind. 
Therefore  a  wonderful  future  still  belonged  to  it.  The  river  of 
Jewish  history  was  for  the  time  choked  and  lost  in  the  sands  of 
the  desert,  but  it  was  destined  to  reappear  again  and  flow  for- 
ward on  its  God-appointed  course.  The  time  of  fulfilment  was 
at  hand,  much  as  the  signs  of  the  times  might  seem  to  forbid  the 
hope.  Had  not  all  the  prophets  from  Moses  onward  spoken  of  a 
great  One  to  come,  who,  appearing  just  when  the  darkness  was 
blackest  and  the  degradation  deepest,  was  to  bring  back  the  lost 
glory  of  the  past  ? 

36.  So  not  a  few  faithful  souls  asked  themselves  in  the  weary 
nnd  degraded  time.     There  are  good  men  in  the  worst  of  pciio^s. 

G 


34  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

There  were  good  men  even  in  the  selfish  and  corrupt  Jewish 
parties.  But  especially  does  piety  linger  in  such  epochs  in  the 
lowly  homes  of  the  people  ;  and,  just  as  we  are  permitted  to 
hope  that  in  the  Romish  Church  at  the  present  time  there  may 
be  those  who,  through  all  the  ceremonies  put  between  the  soul 
and  Christ,  reach  forth  to  Him,  and  by  the  selection  of  a  spiritual 
instinct  seize  the  truth  and  pass  the  falsehood  by,  so  among  the 
common  people  of  Palestine  there  were  those  who,  hearing  the 
Scriptures  read  in  the  synagogues  and  reading  them  in  their 
homes,  instinctively  neglected  the  cumbrous  and  endless  com 
ments  of  their  teachers,  and  saw  the  glory  of  the  past,  of  holi- 
ness and  of  God,  which  the  scribes  failed  to  see. 

37.  It  was  especially  to  the  promises  of  a  Deliverer  that  such 
spirits  attached  their  interest.  Feeling  bitterly  the  shame  of 
national  slavery,  the  hollowness  of  the  times,  and  the  awful 
wickedness  which  rotted  under  the  surface  of  society,  they  longed 
and  prayed  for  the  advent  of  the  coming  One  and  the  restora- 
tion of  the  national  character  and  glory. 

38.  The  scribes  also  busied  themselves  with  this  element  in 
the  Scriptures ;  and  the  cherishing  of  Messianic  hopes  was  one 
of  the  chief  distinctions  of  the  Pharisees.  But  they  had  carica- 
tured the  prophetic  utterances  on  the  subject  by  their  arbitrary 
interpretations,  and  painted  the  future  in  colours  borrowed  from 
their  own  carnal  imaginations.  They  spoke  of  the  advent  as 
the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  of  the  Messiah  as  the 

f^  Son  of  God.  But  what  they  chiefly  expected  Him  to  do  was, 
by  the  working  of  marvels  and  by  irresistible  force,  to  free  the 
nation  from  servitude  and  raise  it  to  the  utmost  worldly 
grandeur.  They  entertained  no  doubt  that,  simply  because  they 
were  rnembers  of  the  chosen  nation,  they  would  be  allotted  high 
places  in  the  kingdom,  and  never  suspected  that  any  change 
was  needed  in  themselves  to  meet  Him.  The  spiritual  elements 
of  the  better  time,  holiness  and  love,  were  lost  in  their  minds 
behind  the  dazzling  forms  of  material  glory.^ 
•  I  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  describe  the  state  of  the  world  beyond 


THE  NATION  AND  THE  TIME.  35 

39.  Such  was  the  aspect  of  Jewish  history  at  the  time  when 
>he  hour  of  realizing  the  national  destiny  was  about  to  strike. 
It  imparted  to  the  work  which  lay  before  the  Messiah  a  peculiar 
complexity.  It  might  have  been  expected  that  He  would  find  a 
nation  saturated  with  the  ideas  and  inspired  with  the  visions  of 
His  predecessors,  the  prophets,  at  whose  head  He  might  place 
Himself,  and  from  which  He  might  receive  an  enthusiastic  and 
effective  co-operation.  But  it  was  not  so.  He  appeared  at  a 
time  when  the  nation  had  lapsed  from  its  ideals  and  caricatured 
their  sublimest  features.  Instead  of  meeting  a  nation  mature 
in  holiness  and  consecrated  to  the  heaven-ordained  task  of 
blessing  all  other  peoples,  which  He  might  easily  lead  up  to  its 
own  final  development,  and  then  lead  forth  to  the  spiritual 
conquest  of  the  world.  He  found  that  the  first  work  which  lay 
before  Him  was  to  proclaim  a  reformation  in  His  own  country, 
and  encounter  the  opposition  of  prejudices  that  had  accumulate'' 
there  through  centuries  of  degradation. 

40.  The  Final  Stages  of  His  Preparation. — Meanwhile  He,  whom 
so  many  in  their  own  ways  were  hoping  for,  was  in  the  midst  of 
them,  though  they  suspected  it  not.  Little  could  they  think  that 
He  about  whom  they  were  speculating  and  praying  was  growing 

Talestine  ;  for  although  the  gifts  Jesus  brought  were  for  all  mankind,  yet 
His  own  activity  was  confined  almost  entirely  to  the  house  of  Israel  within 
its  original  home.  In  a  history  of  Early  Christianity,  or  even  a  life  of 
the  Apostle  Paul,  it  would  be  necessary  to  extend  our  view  over  the  whole 
disc  of  civilisation  which  surrounded  the  Mediterranean,  and  in  which  the 
world's  centre,  which  has  since  shifted  to  other  latitudes,  was  then  to 
he  found  ;  and  to  show  how  marvellously,  by  the  dispersion  of  the  Jews 
through  all  civilised  countries,  the  elementary  conceptions  of  God  which 
were  necessary  for  the  reception  of  Christianity  had  been  diffused  before- 
hand far  and  wide  ;  how  the  conquests  of  Alexander  had,  by  making  the 
Greek  language  universally  understood,  prepared  a  vehicle  by  which  the 
gospel  might  be  carried  to  all  nations  ;  how  a  pathway  for  it  had  been 
provided  by  the  Roman  power,  whose  military  system  had  made  all  lands 
accessible  ;  and,  above  all,  how  the  decay  of  the  ancient  religions  and 
philosophies,  the  wearing-out  everywhere  of  the  old  ideals  of  life,  and  the 
prevalence  of  heart-sickening  sin,  had  made  the  world  ready  for  Him  wlic 
has  the  Desire  of  all  nations. 


36  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

up  in  a  carpenter's  home  away  in  despised  Nazareth.  Yet  so  it 
was.  There  He  was  preparing  Himself  for  His  career.  His 
mind  was  busy  grasping  the  vast  proportions  of  the  task  before 
Him,  as  the  prophecies  of  the  past  and  the  facts  of  the  case 
determined  it ;  His  eyes  were  looking  forth  on  the  country,  and 
His  heart  smarting  with  the  sense  of  its  sin  and  shame.  In 
Himself  He  felt  moving  the  gigantic  powers  necessary  to  cope 
with  the  vast  design  ;  and  the  desire  was  gradually  growing  to 
an  irresistible  passion,  to  go  forth  and  utter  the  thought  within 
Him,  and  do  the  work  which  had  been  given  Him  to  do. 

41.  Jesus  had  only  three  years  to  accomphsh  His  life-work. 
If  we  remember  how  quickly  three  years  in  an  ordinary  life  pass 
away,  and  how  little  at  their  close  there  usually  is  to  show  for 
them,  we  shall  see  what  must  have  been  the  size  and  quality  of 
that  character,  and  what  the  unity  and  intensity  of  design  in  that 
life,  which  in  so  marvellously  short  a  time  made  such  a  deep  and 
ineffaceable  impression  on  the  world,  and  left  to  mankind  such  a 
heritage  of  truth  and  influence. 

42.  It  is  generally  allowed  that  Jesus  appeared  as  a  public 
man  with  a  mind  whose  ideas  were  completely  developed  and 
arranged,  with  a  character  sharpened  over  its  whole  surface  into 
perfect  definiteness,  and  with  designs  that  marched  forward  to 
their  ends  without  hesitation.  No  deflexion  took  place  during 
the  three  years  from  the  lines  on  which  at  the  beginning  of  them 
He  was  moving.  The  reason  of  this  must  have  been,  that  during 
the  thirty  years  before  His  public  work  began,  His  ideas,  His 
character  and  designs  went  through  all  the  stages  of  a  thorough 
development.  Unpretentious  as  the  external  aspects  of  His  life 
at  Nazareth  were,  it  was,  below  the  surface,  a  life  of  intensity, 
variety,  and  grandeur.  Beneath  its  silence  and  obscurity  there 
went  on  all  the  processes  of  growth  which  issued  in  the  magni- 
ficent flower  and  fruit  to  which  all  ages  now  look  back  with 
wonder.  His  preparation  lasted  long.  For  one  with  His  powers 
at  command,  thirty  years  of  complete  reticence  and  reserve  were 
a  long  time.     Nothing  was  greater  in  Him  afterwards  than  the 


THE  NATION  AND  THE  TIME.  37 

majestic  reserve  in  both  speech  and  action  which  characterised 
Him.  This,  too,  was  learned  in  Nazareth.  There  He  waited  till 
the  hour  of  the  completion  of  His  preparation  struck.  Nothing 
could  tempt  Him  forth  before  the  time, — not  the  burning  desire 
to  interfere  with  indignant  protest  amidst  the  cr)'ing  corruptions 
and  mistakes  of  the  age,  not  even  the  swellings  of  the  passion 
to  do  His  fellow-men  good. 

43.  At  last,  however,  He  threw  down  the  carpenter's  tools,  laid 
aside  the  workman's  dress,  and  bade  His  home  and  the  beloved 
valley  of  Nazareth  farewell.  Still,  however,  all  was  not  ready. 
His  manhood,  though  it  had  waxed  in  secret  to  such  noble  pro- 
portions, still  required  a  peculiar  endowment  for  the  work  He 
had  to  do  ;  and  His  ideas  and  designs,  mature  as  they  were, 
required  to  be  hardened  in  the  fire  of  a  momentous  trial.  The 
two  final  incidents  of  His  preparation  —  the  Baptism  and  th"^ 
Temptation — had  still  to  take  place. 

44.  Jesus  did  not  descend  on  the  nation  from  the  obscurity  of 
Nazareth  without  note  of  warning.  His  work  may  be  said  to 
have  been  begun  before  He  Himself  put  His  hand  to  it. 

45.  Once  more,  before  hearing  the  voice  of  its  Messiah,  the 
nation  was  to  hear  the  long-silent  \oice  of  prophecy.  The  news 
went  through  all  the  country  that  in  the  desert  of  Judeea  a 
preacher  had  appeared, — not  like  the  nnimblers  of  dead  men's 
ideas  who  spoke  in  the  synaj^Uj^ues,  or  the  courtier-like,  smooth- 
tongued teachers  of  Jerusalem,  but  a  rude,  strong  man,  speaking 
from  the  heart  to  the  heart,  with  the  authority  of  one  who  was 
sure  of  his  inspiration.  He  had  been  a  Nazarite  from  the  womb  ; 
he  had  lived  for  years  in  the  desert,  wandering,  in  communion 
with  his  own  heart,  beside  the  lonely  shores  of  the  Dead  Sea ; 
he  was  clad  in  the  hair  cloak  and  leather  girdle  of  the  old 
prophets  ;  and  his  ascetic  rigour  sought  no  finer  fare  than  locusts 
and  the  wild  honey  which  he  found  in  the  wilderness.  Yet  he 
knew  life  well ;  he  "was  acquainted  with  all  the  evils  of  the  time, 
tb.c  hypocrisy  of  the  religious  parties,  and  the  corruption  of  the 


38  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

masses  ;  he  had  a  wonderful  power  of  searching  the  heart  and 
shaking  the  conscience,  and  without  fear  laid  bare  the  darling 
sins  of  every  class.  But  that  which  most  of  all  attracted  atten- 
tion to  him  and  thrilled  every  Jewish  heart  from  one  end  of  the 
land  to  the  other,  was  the  message  which  he  bore.  It  was 
nothing  less  than  that  the  Messiah  was  just  at  hand,  and  about 
to  set  up  the  kingdom  of  God.  All  Jerusalem  poured  out  to 
him  ;  the  Pharisees  were  eager  to  hear  the  Messianic  news; 
and  even  the  Sadducees  were  stirred  for  a  moment  from  their 
lethargy.  The  provinces  sent  forth  their  thousands  to  his 
preaching,  and  the  scattered  and  hidden  ones  who  longed  and 
prayed  for  the  redemption  of  Israel  flocked  to  welcome  the 
heart- stirring  promise.  But  along  with  it  John  had  another 
message,  which  excited  very  different  feelings  in  different  minds. 
He  had  to  tell  his  hearers  that  the  nation  as  a  whole  was  utterly 
unprepared  for  the  Messiah ;  that  the  mere  fact  of  their  descent 
from  Abraham  would  not  be  a  sufficient  token  of  admission  to 
His  kingdom ;  it  was  to  be  a  kingdom  of  righteousness  and 
holiness,  and  Christ's  very  first  work  would  be  to  reject  all  who 
were  not  marked  with  these  qualities,  as  the  farmer  winnows 
away  the  chaff"  with  his  fan,  and  the  master  of  the  vineyard  hews 
down  every  tree  that  brings  forth  no  fruit.  Therefore  he  called 
the  nation  at  large — every  class  and  every  individual — to  repent- 
ance, so  long  as  there  still  was  time,  as  an  indispensable  pre- 
paration for  enjoying  the  blessings  of  the  new  epoch  ;  and,  as  an 
outward  symbol  of  this  inward  change,  he  baptized  in  the  Jordan 
all  who  received  his  message  with  faith.  Many  were  stirred  with 
fear  and  hope  and  submitted  to  the  rite,  but  many  more  were 
irritated  by  the  exposure  of  their  sins  and  turned  away  in  anger 
and  unbelief.  Among  these  were  the  Pharisees,  upon  whom  he 
was  specially  severe,  and  who  were  deeply  offended  because 
he  had  treated  so  lightly  their  descent  from  Abraham,  on  which 
they  laid  so  much  stress. 

46.  One  day  there  appeared  among  the  Baptist's  hearers  One 
who  particularly  attracted  his    attention,  and  made   his  voice^ 


H  THE  NATION  AND  THE  TIME.  39 

which  had  never  faltered  when  accusing  in  the  most  vigorous 
language  of  reproof  even  the  highest  teachers  and  priests  of  the 
nation,  tremble  with  self-distrust.  And  when  He  presented 
Himself,  after  the  discourse  was  done,  among  the  candidates  for 
baptism,  John  drew  back,  feeling  that  This  was  no  subject  for  the 
bath  of  repentance,  which  without  hesitation  he  had  administered 
to  all  others,  and  that  he  himself  had  no  right  to  baptize  Him. 
There  were  in  His  face  a  majesty,  a  purity,  and  a  peace  which 
smote  th^ijTian  of  rork  with  th^  sense  of  unworthiness  and  sin. 
It  was  Jesus,  who  had  come  straight  hither  from  the  workshop 
of  Nazareth.  John  and  Jesus  appear  never  to  have  met  before, 
though  their  families  were  related  and  the  connection  of  their 
careers  had  been  predicted  before  their  birth.  This  may  have 
been  due  to  the  distance  of  their  homes  in  Galilee  and  Judaea, 
and  still  more  to  the  Baptist's  peculiar  habits.  But  when,  in 
obedience  to  the  injunction  of  Jesus,  John  proceeded  to  admini- 
ster the  rite,  he  learned  the  meaning  of  the  overpowering 
impression  which  the  Stranger  had  made  on  him  ;  for  the_sigri 
was  given  by  which^^  as  God  had   instructed   him,  he_was_to_ 

;  recognise  the  ^essiahj  whose  forerunner_hewas.  The  Holy 
Ghost  descended  on  Jesus,  as  He  emerged  from  the  water  in  the 
attitude  of  prayer,  and  the  voice  of  God  pronounced  Him  in 
thunder  His  beloved  Son. 

47.  The  impression  made  on  John  by  the  very  look  of  Jesus 
reveals  far  better  than  many  words  could  do  His  aspect  when 
lie  was  about  to  begin  His  work,  and  the  qualities  of  the 
character  which  in  Nazareth  had  been  slowly  ripening  to  full 
maturity. 
J      48.  The  baptism  itself  had  an  important  significance  for  Jesus. 

^-  To  the  other  candidates  who  underwent  the  rite  it  had  a  double 
meaning ;  it  signified  the  abandonment  of  their  old  sins,  and 
their  entrance  into  the  new  Messianic  era.  To  Jesus  it  could  not 
have  the  former  meaning,  except  in  so  far  as  He  may  have 
identified  Himself  with  His  nation,  and  taken  this  way  of 
expressing  His  sense  of  its  need  of  cleansing.     But  it  meant 


/*v. 


40  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

that  He  too  was  now  entering  through  this  door  into  the  ne\i 
epoch,  of  which  He  was  Himself  to  be  the  Author.  It  expressed 
His  sense  that  the  time  had  come  to  leave  behind  the  employ- 
ments of  Nazareth  and  devote  Himself  to  His  peculiar  work. 

49.  But  still  more  important  was  the  descent  upon  Him  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  This  was  neither  a  meaningless  display  nor 
merely  a  signal  to  the  Baptist.  It  was  the  symbol  of  a  special 
gift  then  given  to  qualify  Him  for  His  work,  and  crown  the  long 
development  of  His  peculiar  powers.  It  is  a  forgotten  truth 
that  the  manhood  of  Jesus  was  from  first  to  last  dependent  on 
the  Holy  Ghost.  We  are  apt  to  imagine  that  its  connection 
with  His  divine  nature  rendered  this  unnecessary.  On  the 
contrary,  it  made  it  far  more  necessary,  for  in  order  to  be  the 
organ  of  His  divine  nature,  His  human  nature  had  both  to  be 
endowed  with  the  highest  gifts  and  constantly  sustained  in  their 
exercise.  We  are  in  the  habit  of  attributing  the  wisdom  and 
grace  of  His  words,  His  supernatural  knowledge  of  even  the 
thoughts  of  men,  and  the  miracles  He  performed,  to  His  divine 
nature.  But  in  the  Gospels  they  are  constantly  attributed  to 
the  Holy  Ghost.  This  does  not  mean  that  they  were  inde- 
pendent of  His  divine  nature,  but  that  in  them  His  human 
nature  was  enabled  to  be  the  organ  of  His  divine  nature  by  a 
peculiar  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  gift  was  given  Him  at 
His  baptism.  It  was  analogous  to  the  possession  of  prophets, 
like  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  with  the  Spirit  of  inspiration  on  those 
occasions,  of  which  they  have  left  accounts,  when  they  were 
called  to  begin  their  public  life,  and  to  the  special  outpouring  cf 
the  same  influence  still  sometimes  given  at  their  ordination  to 
those  who  are  about  to  begin  the  work  of  the  ministry.  But  to 
Him  it  was  given  without  measure,  while  to  others  it  has  always 
been  given  only  in  measure  ;  and  it  comprised  especially  the  gift 
of  miraculous  powers. 

Jo.  An  immediate  effect  of  this  new  endowment  appears  to 
have  been  one  often  experienced,  in  less  degree,  by  others  who, 


THE  NATION  AND  THE  TIME.  4I 

in  their  small  measure,  have  received  this  same  gift  of  the  Spirit 
for  work.  His  whole  being  was  excited  about  His  work,  His 
desires  to  be  engaged  in  it  were  raised  to  the  highest  pitch,  and 
His  thoughts  were  intensely  occupied  about  the  means  of  its 
accomplishment.  Although  His  preparation  for  it  had  been 
going  on  for  many  years,  although  His  whole  heart  had  long 
been  fixed  on  it,  and  His  plan  had  been  clearly  settled,  it  was 
natural  that,  when  the  divine  signal  had  been  given  that  it  was 
forthwith  to  commence,  and  He  felt  Himself  suddenly  put  in 
possession  of  the  supernatural  powers  necessary  for  carrying  it 
out,  His  mind  should  be  in  a  tumult  of  crowding  thoughts  and 
feelings,  and  He  should  seek  a  place  of  solitude  to  revolve 
once  more  the  whole  situation.  Accordingly,  He  hastily  re- 
treated from  the  bank  of  the  Jordan,  driven,  we  are  told,  by 
the  Spirit,  which  had  just  been  given  Him,  into  the  wilderness, 
where,  for  forty  days,  He  wandered  among  the  sandy  dunes 
and  wild  mountains.  His  mind  being  so  highly  strung  with  the 
emotions  and  ideas  which  crowded  on  Him,  that  He  forgot  even 
to  eat. 

5 1 .  But  it  is  with  surprise  and  awe  we  learn  that  His  soul  was, 
during  those  days,  the  scene  of  a  frightful  struggle.  He  was 
tempted  of  Satan,  we  are  told.  What  could  He  be  tempted  with 
at  a  time  so  sacred?  To  understand  this  we  must  recall  what 
has  been  said  of  the  state  of  the  Jewish  nation,  and  especially 
the  nature  of  the  Messianic  hopes  which  they  were  indulging. 
They  expected  a  Messiah  who  would  work  dazzling  wonders  and 
establish  a  world-wide  empire  with  Jerusalem  as  its  centre,  and 
they  had  postponed  the  ideas  of  righteousness  and  holiness  to 
these.  They  completely  inverted  the  divine  conception  of  the 
kingdom,  which  could  not  but  give  the  spiritual  and  moral 
elements  precedence  of  material  and  political  considerations. 
Now  what  Jesus  was  tempted  to  do  was,  in  carrying  out  the 
great  work  which  His  Father  had  committed  to  Him^  toyield 
in  some  measure  to  these  expectations^  He  must  have  fore- 
seen that,  unless  He  did   so,  the  nation  would  be  disappointed 


42  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

and  probably  turn  away  from  Him  in  unbelief  and  anger.  The 
different  temptations  were  only  various  modifications  of  this 
one  thought.  The  suggestion  that  He  should  turn  stones  into 
bread  to  satisfy  His  hunger  was  a  temptation  to  use  the  power 
of  working  miracles,  with  which  He  had  just  been  endowed, 
for  a  purpose  inferior  to  those  for  which  alone  it  had  been 
given,  and  was  the  precursor  of  such  temptations  in  His  after- 
life as  the  demand  of  the  multitude  to  show  them  a  sign,  or  that 
He  should  come  down  from  the  cross,  that  they  might  believe 
Him.  The  suggestion  that  He  should  leap  from  the  pinnacle  of 
the  temple  was  probably  also  a  temptation  to  gratify  the  vulgar 
desire  for  wonders,  because  it  was  a  part  of  the  popular  belief 
that  the  Messiah  should  appear  suddenly,  and  in  some  mar- 
vellous way ;  as,  for  instance,  by  a  leap  from  the  temple  roof  into 
the  midst  of  the  crowds  assembled  below.  The  third  and  greatest 
temptation,  to  win  the  empire  of  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world 
by  an  act  of  worship  to  the  Evil  One,  was  manifestly  only  a 
symbol  of  obedience  to  the  universal  Jewish  conception  of  the 
coming  kingdom  as  a  vast  structure  of  material  force.  It  was  a 
temptation  which  every  worker  for  God,  weary  with  the  slow 
progress  of  goodness,  must  often  feel,  and  to  which  even  good  and 
earnest  men  have  sometimes  given  way, — to  begin  at  the  outside 
instead  of  within,  to  get  first  a  great  shell  of  external  conformity 
to  religion,  and  afterwards  fill  it  with  the  reality.  It  was  the 
temptation  to  which  Mahomet  yielded  when  he  used  the  sword 
to  subdue  those  whom  he  was  afterwards  to  make  religious,  and 
to  which  the  Jesuits  yielded  when  they  baptized  the  heathen  first 
and  evangelized  them  afterwards. 

52.  It  is  with  awe  we  think  of  these  suggestions  presenting 
themselves  to  the  holy  soul  of  Jesus.  Could  He  be  tempted  to 
distrust  God,  and  even  to  worship  the  Evil  One?  No  doubt  the 
temptations  were  flung  from  Him,  as  the  impotent  billows  retire 
broken  from  the  breast  of  the  rock  on  which  they  have  dashed 
themselves.  But  these  temptations  pressed  in  on  Him,  not 
only  at  this  time,  but  often   before   in  the  valley  of  Nazareth, 


THE  NATION  AND  THE  TIME.  43 

and  often  afterwards  in  the  heats  and  crises  of  His  hfc.  Wc 
must  remember  that  it  is  no  sin  to  be  tempted,  it  is  only  sin  to 
yield  to  temptation.  And,  indeed,  the  more  absolutely  pure  a 
soul  is,  the  more  painful  will  be  the  point  of  the  temptation,  as 
it  presses  for  admission  into  his  breast. 

53.  Although  the    tempter   only    departed    from  Jesus   for  a 
""Aseason,  this  was  a  decisive  struggle  ;  he  was  thoroughly  beaten 
''^    back,  and  his  power  broken  at  its  heart.     Milton  has  indicated 
this  by  finishing  his  Paradise  Regained  at  this  point.     Jesus 
"     emerged  from  the  wilderness  with  the  plan  of  His  life,  which,  no 
ufcv*€l$ubt,  had  been  formed  long  before,  hardened  in  the  fire  of  trial. 
%     Nothing  is  more  conspicuous  in  His  after-life  than  the  resolution 
with  which  he  carried  it  out.     Other  men,  even  those  who  have 
accomplished  the  greatest  tasks,  have  sometimes  had  no  definite 
plan,  but  only  seen  by  degrees  in  the  evolution  of  circumstances 
the  path  to  pursue  ;  their  purposes  have  been  modified  by  events 
and  the  advice  of  others.     But  Jesus  started  with  His  plan  per- 
fected, and  never  deviated  from  it  by  a  hair's-breadth.  He  resented 
the  interference  of  His  mother  or  His  chief  disciple  with  it  as 
stedfastly  as  He  bore  it  through  the  fiery  opposition  of  open 
enemies.     And  His  plan  was  to  establish  the  kingdom  of  God  in 
the  hearts  of  individuals,  and  rely  not  on  the  weapons  of  political 
and  materinl   <;trergth.  but  only  on  the  power  of  love  and  the 
force  ot  uui>>. 


i^ 


THE  LIFE  OF  TESUS  CHRIST.  45 


THE  DIVISIONS  OF   HIS  PUBLIC  MINISTRY. 

54.  The  public  ministry  of  Jesus  is  generally  reckoned  to  have 
lasted  three  years.  Each  of  them  had  peculiar  features  of  its 
own.  The  first  may  be  called  the  Year  of  Obscurity,  both 
because  the  records  of  it  which  we  possess  are  very  scanty, 
and  because  He  seems  during  it  to  have  been  only  slowly 
emerging  into  public  notice.V  It  was  spent  for  the  most  part 
in  Judaea.  The  second  was  theWear  of  Public  Favour,  during 
which  the  country  had  become  thoroughly  aware  of  Him,  Hi5 
activity  was  incessant,  and  His  fame  rang  through  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land.  It  was  almost  wholly  passed  in 
Galilee.  The  third  was  the^'Year  of  Opposition,  when  the 
public  favour  ebbed  away,  His  enemies  multiplied  and  assailed 
Him  with  more  and  more  pertinacity,  and  at  last  He  fell  a  victim 
to  their  hatred.  The  first  si.\  months  of  this  final  year  wera 
passed  in  Galilee,  and  the  last  six  in  other  parts  of  the  land. 

55.  Thus  the  life  of  the  Saviour  in  its  e.xternal  outline  re- 
sembled that  of  many  a  reformer  and  benefactor  of  mankind. 
Such  a  life  often  begins  with  a  period  during  which  the  public  is 
gradually  made  aware  of  the  new  man  in  its  midst,  then  passes 
into  a  period  when  his  doctrine  or  reform  is  borne  aloft  on  the 
shoulders  of  popularity,  and  ends  with  a  reaction,  when  the  old 
prejudices  and  interests  which  have  been  assailed  by  him  rally 
from  his  attack,  and,  gaining  to  themselves  the  inssions  of  the 
crowd,  crush  him  in  their  rage. 


CHAPTER    1 1 1, 


THE  YEAR  OF  OBSCURITY. 


Paragraphs  56-65. 

57.   The  First  Disciples;    58.  The    First    Miracle;    59. 

The  Cleansing  of  the  Temple  ;  60.   Nicodemus. 
61-65.   Reasons  for  the  meagreness  of  the  Records  of  this 

Year. 


•!?f 


CHAPTER    III. 


THE    YEAR    OK    OBSCURITY. 


56.  The  records  of  this  year  which  we  possess  are  extremely 
meagre,  comprising  only  two  or  three  incidents,  which  may  be 
here  enumerated,  especially  as  they  form  a  kind  of  programme 
of  His  future  work. 

57.  When  He  emerged  from  the  wilderness  after  the  forty  days 
of  temptation,  with  His  grasp  of  His  future  plan  tightened  by 
that  awful  struggle  and  with  the  inspiration  of  His  baptism  siill 
swelling  His  heart,  He  appeared  once  more  on  the  bank  of  the 
Jordan,  and  John  pointed  Him  out  as  the  great  Successor  to 
himself  of  whom  he  had  often  spoken.  He  especially  introduced 
Him  to  some  of  the  choicest  of  his  own  disciples,  who  immedi- 
ately became  His  followers.  Probably  the  very  first  of  these  to 
whom  He  spoke  was  the  man  who  was  afterwards  to  be  His 
favourite  disciple,  and  to  give  to  the  world  the  divinest  portrait 
of  His  character  and  life.  John  the  Evangelist — for  he  it  was — 
has  left  an  account  of  this  first  meeting  and  the  interview  that 
followed  it,  which  retains  in  all  its  freshness  the  impression 
which  Christ's  majesty  and  purity  made  on  his  receptive  mind. 
The  other  young  men  who  attached  themselves  to  Him  at  the 
same  time  were  Andrew,  Peter,  Philip,  and  Nathanael.  They 
had  been  prepared  for  their  new  Master  by  their  intercourse  with 
the  Baptist,  and,  although  they  did  not  at  once  give  up  their 
employments  and  follow  Him  in  the  same  way  as  they  did  at  1 


48  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST, 

later  period,  they  received  impressions  at  their  very  first  meeting 
which  decided  their  whole  after-career.  The  Baptist's  disciples 
do  not  seem  to  have  at  once  gone  over  in  a  body  to  Christ.  But 
the  best  of  them  did  so.  Some  mischief-makers  endeavoured  to 
excite  envy  in  his  mind  by  pointing  out  how  his  influence  was 
passing  away  to  Another.  But  they  little  understood  that  great 
man,  ^vhos'S "  chief  greatness  was  his  humility.  He  answered 
th-'ni  I'lat  it  was  his  joy  to  decrease,  while  Christ  increased,  for 
It  1  L  who  as  the  Bridegroom  was  to  lead  home  the  bride, 

while  lie  v'.as  only  the  Bridegroom's  friend,  whose  happiness 
consisted  in  seeing  the  crown  of  festal  joy  placed  on  the  head  of 
another. 

58.  With  His  newly  attached  followers  Jesus  departed  from 
the  scene  of  John's  ministry,  and  went  north  to  Cana  in  Galilee, 
to  attend  a  marriage  to  which  He  had  been  invited.  Here  He 
made  the  first  display  of  the  miraculous  powers  with  which  He 
had  been  recently  endowed,  by  turning  water  into  wine.  It 
was_a  manifestation  of  His  glory  intended  specially  for  His  new 
disciples,  who,  we  are  told,  thenceforward  believed  on  Him,  which 
means,  no  doubt,  that  they  were  fully  convinced  that  He  was  the 
Messiah.     It  was  intended  also  to  strike  the  key-note  of  His 

■^   '"'*"    ministry  as  altogether  different  from  the  Baptist's..  John  was  an 

^  >*^^ascetic  hermit,  who  fled  from  the  abodes  of  men  and  called  his 

J  ^      hearers  out  into  the  wilderness.     But  Jesus  had  glad  tidings  to 

*~'''^<.  bring  to  men's  hearths  ;  He  was  to  mingle  in  their  common  life, 

and  produce  a  happy  revolution  in  their  circumstances,  which 

would  be  like  the  turning  of  the  water  of  their  life  into  wine. 

59.  Soon  after  this  miracle  He  returned  again  to  Judaea  to 
attend  the  Passover,  and  gave  a  still  more  striking  proof  of  the 
joyful  and  enthusiastic  mood  in  which  He  was  then  living,  by 
purging  the  temple  of  the  sellers  of  animals  and  the  money- 
changers, who  had  introduced  their  traffic  into  its  courts.  These 
persons  were  allowed  to  carry  on  their  sacrilegious  trade  under 
the  pretence  of  accommodating  strangers  who  came  to  worship  at 
Jerusalem,  by  selling  to  them  the  victims  which  they  could  not 


fb 


u. 


THE  YEAR  OF  OBSCURITY.  49 

bring  from  foreign  countries,  and  supplying,  in  exchange  for 
foreign  money,  the  Jewish  coins  in  which  alone  they  could  pay 
their  temple  dues.  But  what  had  been  begun  under  the  veil  of 
a  pious  pretext  had  ended  in  gross  disturbance  of  the  worship, 
and  in  elbowing  the  Gentile  proselytes  from  the  place  which  God 
had  allowed  them  in  His  house.  Jesus  had  probably  often 
witnessed  the  disgraceful  scene  with  indignation  during  His 
visits  to  Jerusalem,  and  now,  with  the  prophetic  zeal  of  His 
baptism  upon  Him,  He  broke  out  against  it.  The  same  look  of  S 
irresistible  purity  and  majesty  which  had  appalled  John,  when  ♦^ 
He  sought  baptism,  prevented  any  resistance  on  the  part  of  the 
ignoble  crew,  and  made  the  onlookers  recognise  the  lineaments 
of  the  prophets  of  ancient  days,  before  whom  kings  and  crowds 
I  alike  were  wont  to  quail.  It  was  the  beginning  of  His  refor- 
'  matory  work  against  the  religious  abuses  of  the  time. 

60.  He  wrought  other  miracles  during  the  feast,  which  must 
have  excited  much  talk  among  the  pilgrims  from  every  land  who 
crowded  the  city.  One  result  of  them  was  to  bring  to  His 
lodging  one  night  the  venerable  and  anxious  inquirer  to  whom 
He  delivered  the  marvellous  discourse  on  the  nature  of  the  new 
kingdom  He  had  come  to  found,  and  the  grounds  of  admission 
to  it,  which  has  been  preserved  to  us  in  the  third  chapter  of 
John.  It  seemed  a  hopeful  sign  that  one  of  the  heads  of  the 
nation  should  approach  Him  in  a  spirit  so  humble  ;  but  Nico- 
demus  was  the  only  one  of  them  on  whose  mind  the  first  display 
of  the  Messiah's  power  in  the  capital  produced  a  deep  and 
favourable  impression. 

61.  Thus  far  we  follow  clearly  the  first  steps  of  Jesus.  But  at 
this  point  our  information  in  regard  to  the  first  year  of  His  ministry, 
after  commencing  with  such  fulness,  comes  to  a  sudden  stop,  and 
for  the  next  eight  months  we  learn  nothing  more  about  Him  bu 
that  He  was  baptizing  in  Judaea, — '  though  Jesus  Himself  bap 
tized  not,  but  His  disciples,' — and  that  He  '  made  and  baptizec 
more  disciples  than  John.' 

D 


50  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

62.  What  can  be  the  meaning  of  such  a  blank  ?  It  is  to  be 
noted,  too,  that  it  is  only  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  that  we  receive 
even  the  details  given  above.  The  Synoptists  omit  the  first  year 
of  the  ministry  altogether,  beginning  their  narrative  with  the 
ministry  in  Galilee,  and  merely  indicating  in  the  most  cursory 
way  that  there  was  a  ministry  in  Judaea  before. 

63.  It  is  very  difficult  to  explain  all  this.  The  most  natural 
explanation  would  perhaps  be,  that  the  incidents  of  this  year 
were  imperfectly  known  at  the  time  when  the  Gospels  were  com- 
posed. It  would  be  quite  natural  that  the  details  of  the  period 
when  Jesus  had  not  attracted  much  public  attention  should  be 
much  less  accurately  remembered  than  those  of  the  period  when 
He  was  by  far  the  best  known  personage  in  the  country.  But, 
indeed,  the  Synoptists  all  through  take  little  notice  of  what  hap- 
pened in  Judaea,  till  the  close  of  His  life  draws  nigh.  It  is  to 
John  we  are  indebted  for  the  connected  narrative  of  His  various 
visits  to  the  south. 

64.  But  John,  at  least,  could  scarcely  have  been  ignorant  of 
the  incidents  of  eight  months.  We  shall  perhaps  be  conducted 
to  the  explanation  by  attending  to  the  little-noticed  fact,  which 
John  communicates,  that  for  a  time  Jesus  took  up  the  work  of 
the  Baptist.  He  baptized  by  the  hands  of  His  disciples,  and 
drew  even  larger  crowds  than  John.  Must  not  this  mean  that 
He  was  convinced,  by  the  small  impression  which  His  mani- 
festation of  Himself  at  the  Passover  had  made,  that  the  nation 
was  utterly-unprepared  for  receiving  Him  yet  as  the  Messiah, 
and  that  what  was  needed  was  the  extension  of  the  preparatory 
work  of  repentance  and  baptism,  and  accordingly,  keeping  in  the__ 
background  His  higher  character,  became  for  the  time  the  col- 
league  of  John  ?  This  view  is  confirmed  by  the  fact,  that  it  was 
upon  John's  imprisonment  at  this  year's  end  that  He  opened 
fully  His  Messianic  career  in  Galilee. 

65.  A  still  deeper  explanation  of  the  silence  of  the  Synoptists 
over  this  period,  and  their  scant  notice  of  Christ's  subsequent 
visits  to  Jerusalem,  has  been  suggested.    Jesus  came  primarily  to 


THE  YEAR  OF  OBSCURITY.  5I 

the  Jewish  nation,  whose  authoritative  representatives  were  to  be 
found  at  Jerusalem.  He  was  the  Messiah  promised  to  their 
fathers,  the  Fulfiller  of  the  nation's  history.  He  had  indeed  a  far 
wider  mission  to  the  whole  world,  but  He  was  to  begin  with  the 
Jews,  and  at  Jerusalem.  The  nation,  however,  in  its  heads  at 
Jerusalem,  rejected  Him,  and  so  He  was  compelled  to  found 
His  world-wide  community  from  a  different  centre.  This  having 
become  evident  by  the  time  the  Gospels  were  written,  the  Synop- 
tists  passed  His  activity  at  the  headquarters  of  the  nation,  as  a 
work  with  merely  negative  results,  in  great  measure  by,  and  con- 
centrated attention  on  the  period  of  His  ministry  when  He  was 
gathering  the  company  of  believing  souls  that  was  to  form  the 
nucleus  of  the  Christian  Church.  However  this  may  be,  cer- 
tainly at  the  close  of  the  first  year  of  the  ministry  of  Jesus  there 
fell  already  over  Juda;a  and  Jerusalem  the  shadow  of  an  awful 
coming  event, — the  shadow  of  that  most  frightful  of  all  national 
crimes  which  the  world  has  ever  witnessed,  the  rejection  and 
crucifixion  by  the  Jews  of  their  Messiah. 


CHAPTER    IV. 
THE  YEAR  OF  PUBLIC  FA  VOUR. 

Paragraphs  66-73.  Galilee,  the  Scene  of  this  Year's  Work.. 

67,  68.  Its  Size  and  Population,  the  Sea  of  Galilee  ; 
69.  Return  of  Jesus  from  the  South  ;  70.  Visit  to 
Nazareth  ;  71.  Removal  of  His  Home  to  Caper- 
naum ;  72.  Manner  of  His  Life;  73.  His 
Popularity. 

74-113.  The  Means  He  employed. 

76-83.   Miracles. 

77.  Different  Kinds  of  them ;  7S-83.  Reasons 
why  He  wrought  them. 

84-104.   Preaching. 

86-89.  The  Form  of  His  Preaching. 

90-95.  The  Qualities  of  the  Preacher — 91.  Autho- 
rity ;  92.  Boldness ;  93.  Power ;  94.  Gracious- 
ness  ;  95.   Human  Breadth. 

96-102.  The  Matter  of  His  Teaching — 97-100.  The 
Kingdom  of  God;  loi.  Himself;  102.  Im- 
portant Themes  which  He  only  slightly  touched. 

103,  104.  His  Audiences. 

105- 1 1 3.    The  A  postal  ate. 

105-108,   Call  and  Training  of  the  Twelve. 

109-I13.  His  Human  Character — 109.  Purpose- 
fulness;  no.  Faith;  lii.  Originahty ; 
112.  Love  to  Men;  113.  Love  to  God;  114. 
Sinlessness. 

115.  The  Deity  of  Christ. 


52 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  YEAR  OF  PUCLIC  FAVOUR. 


66.  After  the  year  spent  in  the  south,  Jesus  shifted  the 
spliere  of  His  activity  to  the  north  of  the  country.  In  Galilee 
He  would  be  able  to  address  Himself  to  minds  that  were  un- 
sophisticated with  the  prejudices  and  supercilious  pride  of  Judcca, 
where  the  sacerdotal  and  learned  classes  had  their  headquarters  ; 
and  He  might  hope  that,  if  His  doctrine  and  influence  took  a  deep 
iiold  of  one  part  of  the  country,  even  though  it  was  remote  from 
the  centre  of  authority,  He  might  return  to  the  south  backed  with 
an  irresistible  national  acknowledgment,  and  carry  by  storm  even 
Che  citadel  of  prejudice  itself. 

67.  Galilee. — The  area  of  His  activity  for  the  next  eighteen 
months  was  very  limited.  Even  the  whole  of  Palestine  was  a 
very  limited  country.  Its  length  was  a  hundred  miles  less  than 
that  of  Scotland,  and  its  breadth  considerably  less  than  the 
average  breadth  of  Scotland.  It  is  important  to  remember  this, 
because  it  renders  intelligible  the  rapidity  with  which  the  move- 
ment of  Jesus  spread  over  the  land,  and  all  parts  of  the  country 
flocked  to  His  ministry  ;  and  it  is  interesting  to  remember  it  as 
an  illustration  of  the  fact,  that  the  nations  which  have  contributed 
most  to  the  civilisation  of  the  world  have,  during  the  period  of 
their  true  greatness,  been  confined  to  very  small  territories. 
Rome  was  but  a  single  city,  and  Greece  a  very  small  country. 

63.  Galilee  was  the  most  northerly  of  the  four  provinces  intc 

63 


54  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST, 

whicli  Palestine  was  divided.  It  was  sixty  miles  long  by  thirty 
broad ;  that  is  to  say,  it  was  less  than  some  of  our  Scottish 
counties.  It  was  about  the  size  of  Aberdeenshire.  It  consisted 
for  the  most  part  of  an  elevated  plateau,  whose  surface  was 
varied  by  irregular  mountain  masses.  Near  its  eastern  boundary 
it  suddenly  dropped  down  into  a  great  gulf,  through  which  flowed 
the  Jordan,  and  in  the  midst  of  which,  at  a  depth  of  five  hundred 
feet  below  the  Mediterranean,  lay  the  lovely,  harp-shaped  Sea  of 
Galilee.  The  whole  province  was  very  fertile,  and  its  surface 
thickly  covered  with  large  villages  and  towns.  The  population 
was  perhaps  as  dense  as  that  of  Lancashire  or  the  West  Riding 
of  Yorkshire.  But  the  centre  of  activity  was  the  basin  of  the  lake, 
a  sheet  of  water  thirteen  miles  long  by  six  broad.  Above  its 
eastern  shore,  round  which  ran  a  fringe  of  green  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
broad,  there  towered  high,  bare  hills,  cloven  with  the  channels 
of  torrents.  On  the  western  side,  the  mountains  were  gently 
sloped  and  their  sides  richly  cultivated,  bearing  splendid  crops 
of  every  description ;  while  at  their  feet  the  shore  was  verdant 
with  luxuriant  groves  of  olives,  oranges,  figs,  and  every  product 
of  an  almost  tropical  climate.  At  the  northern  end  of  the  lake 
the  space  between  the  water  and  the  mountains  was  broadened 
by  the  delta  of  the  river,  and  watered  with  many  streams  from 
the  hills,  so  that  it  was  a  perfect  paradise  of  fertility  and  beauty. 
It  was  called  the  plain  of  Gennesareth,  and  even  at  this  day,  when 
the  whole  basin  of  the  lake  is  little  better  than  a  torrid  solitude, 
is  still  covered  with  magnificent  corn-fields,  wherever  the  hand 
of  cultivation  touches  it ;  and,  where  idleness  leaves  it  un tended, 
is  overspread  with  thick  jungles  of  thorn  and  oleander.  In  our 
Lord's  time,  it  contained  the  chief  cities  on  the  lake,  such  as 
Capernaum,  Bethsaida,  and  Chorazin.  But  the  whole  shore  was 
studded  with  towns  and  villages,  and  formed  a  perfect  beehive  of 
swarming  human  life.  The  means  of  existence  were  abundant 
in  the  crops  and  fruits  of  every  description  which  the  fields 
yielded  so  richly ;  and  the  waters  of  the  lake  teemed  with  fish, 
affording  employment  to  thousands  of  fishermen.     Besides,  the 


THE  YEAR  OF  PUBLIC  FAVOUR-  55 

great  highways  from  Egypt  to  Damascus,  and  from  Phoenicia  to 
the  Euphrates,  passed  here,  and  made  this  a  vast  centre  of 
traffic.  Thousands  of  boats  for  fishing,  transport,  and  pleasure 
moved  to  and  fro  on  the  surface  of  the  lake,  so  that  the  whole 
region  was  a  focus  of  energy  and  prosperity. 

69.  The  report  of  the  miracles  which  Jesus  had  wrought  at 
Jerusalem,  eight  months  before,  had  been  brought  home  to 
Galilee  by  the  pilgrims  who  had  been  south  at  the  fea^t,  and 
doubtless  also  the  news  of  His  preaching  and  baptism  in  Judaea 
had  created  talk  and  excitement  before  He  arrived.  Accordingly, 
the  Galileans  were  in  some  measure  prepared  to  receive  Him 
when  He  returned  to  their  midst. 

70.  One  of  the  first  places  He  visited  was  Nazareth,  the  home 
of  His  childhood  and  youth.  He  appeared  there  one  Sabbath  in 
the  synagogue,  and,  being  now  known  as  a  preacher,  was  invited 
to  read  the  Scriptures  and  address  the  congregation.  He  read  a 
passage  in  Isaiah,  in  which  a  glowing  description  is  given  of  the 
coming  and  work  of  the  Messiah  :  '  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  God 
is  upon  me,  because  He  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  gospel  to 
the  poor  ;  He  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach 
deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to  preach  the  acceptable 
year  of  the  Lord.'  As  He  commented  on  this  text,  picturing  the 
features  of  _the  Messianic  time, — the  emancipation  of  the  slave, 
the  enriching  of  the~poor,~Ehe  healing  of  the  diseased, — their 
curiosity  at  hearing  for  the  first  time  a  young  preacher  who  had 
been  brought  up  among  themselves  passed  into  spell-bound 
wonder,  and  they  burst  into  the  applause  which  used  to  be 
allowed  in  the  Jewish  synagogues.  But  soon  the  reaction  came. 
They  began  to  whisper  :  Was  not  this  the  carpenter  who  had 
worked  among  them  ?  Had  not  His  father  and  mother  been 
their  neighbours?  Were  not  his  sisters  married  in  the  town? 
Their  envy  was  excited.  And  when  He  proceeded  to  tell  them 
that  the  prophecy  which  He  had  read  was  fulfilled  in  Himself, 


56  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

they  broke  out  into  angry  scorn.  They  demanded  of  Him  a  sign, 
such  as  it  was  reported  He  had  given  in  Jerusalem  ;  and  when 
He  informed  them  that  He  could  do  no  miracle  among  the 
unbelieving,  they  rushed  on  Him  in  a  storm  of  jealousy  and 
wrath,  and,  hurrying  Him  out  of  the  synagogue  to  a  crag  behind 
the  town,  would,  if  He  had  not  miraculously  taken  Himself  away 
from  them,  have  flung  Him  over,  and  crowned  their  proverbial 
wickedness  with  a  deed  which  would  have  robbed  Jerusalem  of 
her  bad  eminence  of  being  the  murderess  of  the  Messiah. 

71.  From  that  day  Nazareth  was  His  home^  no  mxire.  Once 
again,  indeed,  in  His  yearning  love  for  His  old  neighbours.  He 
visited  it,  but  with  no  better  result.  Henceforward  He  made  His 
home  in  Capernaum,  on  the  north-western  shore  of  the  Sea  of 
Galilee!  TEis^wn  has  completely  vanished  oat  of  existence  ;  its 
very  site  cannot  now  be  discovered  with  any  certainty.  This 
may  be  one  reason  why  it  is  not  connected  in  the  Christian  mind 
with  the  life  of  Jesus  in  the  same  prominent  way  as  Bethlehem, 
Adhere  He  was  born,  Nazareth,  where  He  was  brought  up,  and 
Jerusalem,  where  He  died.  But  we  ought  to  fix  it  in  our  memories 
side  by  side  with  these,  for  it  was  His  home  for  eighteen  of  the 
most  important  months  of  His  life.  It  is  called  His  own  city, 
and  He  was  asked  for  tribute  in  it  as  a  citizen  of  the  place.  It 
was  thoroughly  well  adapted  to  be  the  centre  of  His  labours  in 
Galilee,  for  it  was  the  focus  of  the  busy  life  in  the  basin  of  the 
lake,  and  was  conveniently  situated  for  excursions  to  all  parts  of 
the  province.  Whatever  happened  there  was  quickly  heard  of 
in  all  the  regions  round  about.        ^^ 

72.  In  Capernaum,  then.  He  began  His  Galilean  work  ;  and  for 
many  months  the  method  of  His  life  was,  to  be  frequently  there 
as  in  His  headquarters,  and  from  this  centre  to  make  tours  in  all 
directions,  visiting  the  towns  and  villages  of  Galilee.  Sometimes 
His  journey  would  be  inland,  away  to  the  west.  At  other  times 
it  would  be  a  tour  of  the  villages  on  the  lake,  or  a  visit  to  the 
country  on  its  eastern  side.  He  had  a  boat  that  waited  on  Him, 
to  convey  Him  wherever  He  might  wish  to  go.     He  would  come 


THE  YEAR  OF  PUBLIC  FAVOUR.  57 

back  to  Capernaum,  perhaps  only  for  a  day,  perhaps  for  a  week 
or  two  at  a  time. 

Tl.  In  a  few  weeks  the  whole  province  was  ringing  with  His 
name  ;  He  was  the  subject  of  conversation  in  every  boat  on  the 
lake  and  every  house  in  the  whole  region ;  men's  minds  were 
stirred  with  the  profoundest  excitement,  and  every  one  desired  to 
see  Him.  Crowds  began  to  gather  about  Him.  They  grew 
larger  and  larger.  They  multiplied  to  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands.  They  followed  Him  wherever  He  went.  The  news 
spread  far  and  wide  beyond  Galilee,  and  brought  hosts  from 
Jerusalem,  Jud^a,  and  Pera^a,  and  even  from  Idumaea  in  the  far 
south,  and  Tyre  and  Sidon  in  the  far  north.  Sometimes  He 
could  not  stay  in  any  town,  because  the  crowds  blocked  up  the 
streets  and  trode  one  on  another.  He  had  to  take  them  out 
to  the  fields  and  deserts.  The  country  was  stirred  from  end  to 
end,  and  Galilee  was  all  on  fire  with  excitement  about  Him, 

74.  How  was  it  that  He  produced  so  great  and  widespread  a 
movement .''  It  was  not  by  declaring  Himself  the  Messiah.  That 
would  indeed  have  caused  to  pass  through  every  Jewish  breast 
the  deepest  thrill  which  it  could  experience.  But  although  Jesus 
now  and  then,  as  at  Nazareth,  revealed  Himself,  in  general  He 
rather  concealed  His  true  character.  No  doubt  the  reason  of 
this  was  that  among  the  excitable  crowds  of  rude  Galilee,  with 
their  grossly  materialistic  hopes,  the  declaration  would  have  ex- 
cited a  revolutionary  rising  against  the  Roman  Government,  which 
would  have  withdrawn  men's  minds  from  His  true  aims  and 
brought  down  on  His  head  the  Roman  sword,  just  as  in  Judasa  it 
would  have  precipitated  a  murderous  attack  on  His  hfe  by  the 
Jewish  authorities.  To  avert  either  kind  of  interruption,  He  kept 
the  full  revelation  of  Himself  in  reserve,  endeavouring  to  prepare 
the  public  mind  to  receive  it  in  its  true  inward  and  spiritual 
meaning,  when  the  right  moment  for  divulging  it  should  come, 
and  in  the  meantime  leaving  it  to  be  inferred  from  His  character 
and  work  who  He  was. 


58  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

75.  The  two  great  means  which  Jesus  used  in  His  work,  and 
which  created  such  attention  and  enthusiasm,  were  His  Miracles 
and  His  Preaching. 

76.  The  Miracle-Worker. — Perhaps  His  miracles  excited  the 
widest  attention.  We  are  told  how  the  news  of  the  first  one 
which  He  wrought  in  Capernaum  spread  like  wildfire  through 
the  town,  and  brought  crowds  about  the  house  where  He  was  ; 
and  whenever  He  performed  a  new  one  of  extraordinary  character, 
the  excitement  grew  intense  and  the  rumour  of  it  spread  on  every 
hand.  When,  for  instance,  He  first  cured  leprosy,  the  most 
malignant  form  of  bodily  disease  in  Palestine,  the  amazement 
of  the  people  knew  no  bounds.  It  was  the  same  when  He  first 
overcame  a  case  of  possession  ;  and  when  He  raised  to  life  the 
widow's  son  at  Nain,  there  ensued  a  sort  of  stupor  of  fear,  followed 
by  delighted  wonder  and  the  talk  of  thousands  of  tongues.  All 
Galilee  was  for  a  time  in  motion  with  the  crowding  of  the  diseased 
of  every  description  who  could  walk  or  totter  to  be  near  Him, 
and  with  companies  of  anxious  friends  carrying  on  beds  and 
couches  those  who  could  not  come  themselves.  The  streets  of 
the  villages  and  towns  were  lined  with  the  victims  of  disease  as 
His  benignant  figure  passed  by.  Sometimes  He  had  so  many  to 
attend  to  that  He  could  not  find  time  even  to  eat ;  and  at  one 
period  He  was  so  absorbed  in  His  benevolent  labours,  and  so 
carried  along  with  the  holy  excitement  which  they  caused,  that 
His  relatives,  with  indecorous  rashness,  endeavoured  to  interfere, 
saying  to  each  other  that  He  was  beside  Himself. 

']T.  The  miracles  of  Jesus,  taken  altogether,  were  of  tv/o 
classes, — those  wrought  on  man,  and  those  wrought  in  the  sphere 
of  external  nature,  such  as  the  turning  of  water  into  wine,  stilling 
the  tempest,  and  multiplying  the  loaves.  The  former  were  by 
far  the  more  numerous.  They  consisted  chiefly  of  cures  of 
diseases  less  or  more  malignant,  such  as  lameness,  blindness, 
deafness,  palsy,  leprosy,  and  so  forth.  He  appears  to  have 
varied  very  much  His  mode  of  acting,  for  reasons  which  we  can 


THE  YEAR  OF  PUBLIC  FAVOUR.  59 

scarcely  explain.  Sometimes  He  used  means,  such  as  a  touch, 
or  the  laying  of  moistened  clay  on  the  part,  or  ordering  the 
patient  to  wash  in  water.  At  other  times  He  healed  without 
any  means,  and  occasionally  even  at  a  distance.  Besides  these 
bodily  cures.  He  dealt  with  the  diseases  of  the  mind.  These 
seem  to  have  been  peculiarly  prevalent  in  Palestine  at  the  time, 
and  to  have  excited  the  utmost  terror.  They  were  believed  to 
be  accompanied  by  the  entrance  of  demons  into  the  poor  imbecile 
or  raving  victims,  and  this  idea  was  only  too  true.  The  man 
whom  Jesus  cured  among  the  tombs  in  the  country  of  the 
Gadarenes  was  a  frightful  example  of  this  class  of  disease  ;  and 
the  picture  of  him  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  clothed  and  in 
his  right  mind,  shows  what  an  effect  His  kind,  soothing,  and 
authoritative  presence  had  on  minds  so  distracted.  But  the 
most  extraordinary  of  the  miracles  of  Jesus  upon  man  were 
the  instances  in  which  He  raised  the  dead  to  life.  They  were 
not  frequent,  but  naturally  produced  an  overwhelming  impres- 
sion whenever  they  occurred.  The  miracles  of  the  other  class — 
those  on  external  nature — were  of  the  same  inexplicable  descrip- 
tion. Some  of  His  cures  of  mental  disease,  if  standing  by  them- 
selves, might  be  accounted  for  by  the  influence  of  a  powerful 
nature  on  a  troubled  mind ;  and  in  the  same  way  some  of  His 
bodily  cures  might  be  accounted  for  by  His  influencing  the  body 
through  the  mind.  But  such  a  miracle  as  walking  on  the  tempes- 
tuous sea  is  utterly  beyond  the  reach  of  any  natural  explanation. 

78.  Why  did  Jesus  employ  this  means  of  working  ?  Several 
answers  may  be  given  to  this  question. 

79.  First,  He  wrought  miracles  because  His  Father  gave  Him 
these  signs  as  proofs  that  He  had  sent  Him.  Many  of  the  Old 
Testament  prophets  had  received  the  same  authentication  of 
their  mission,  and  although  John,  who  revived  the  prophetic 
function,  worked  no  miracles,  as  the  Gospels  inform  us  with  the 
most  simple  veracity,  it  was  to  be  expected  that  He  who  was  a 
far  greater  prophet  than  the  greatest  who  went  before  Him, 
should  show  even  greater  signs  than  anv  of  them  of  His  divine 


6o  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

mission.  It  was  a  stupendous  claim  which  He  made  on  tho 
faith  of  men  when  He  announced  Himself  as  the  Messiah,  and 
it  would  have  been  unreasonable  to  expect  it  to  be  conceded  by 
a  nation  accustomed  to  miracles  as  the  signs  of  a  divine  mission, 
if  He  had  wrought  none. 

80.  Secondly,  the  miracles  of  Christ  were  the  natural  outflow 
f>f  the  divine  fulness  which  dwelt  in  Him.  God  was  in  Him,  and 
His  human  nature  was  endowed  with  the  Holy  Ghost  without 
measure.  It  was  natural,  when  such  a  Being  was  in  the  world, 
that  mighty  works  should  manifest  themselves  in  Him.  He  was 
Himself  the  great  miracle,  of  which  His  particular  miracles  were 
merely  sparks  or  emanations.  He  was  the  great  interruption 
of  the  order  of  nature,  or  rather  a  new  element  which  had 
entered  into  the  order  of  nature  to  enrich  and  ennoble  it,  and 
His  miracles  entered  with  Him,  not  to  disturb,  but  to  repair  its 
harmony.  Therefore  all  His  miracles  bore  the  stamp  of  His 
character.  They  were  not  mere  exhibitions  of  power,  but  also 
of  holiness,  wisdom,  and  love.  The  Jews  often  sought  from 
Him  mere  gigantesque  prodigies,  to  gratify  their  mania  for 
marvels.  But  He  always  refused  them,  working  only  such 
miracles  as  were  helps  to  faith.  He  demanded  faith  in  all  those 
whom  He  cured,  and  never  responded  either  to  curiosity  or 
unbelieving  challenges  to  exhibit  marvels.  This  distinguishes 
His  miracles  from  those  fabled  of  ancient  wonder-workers  and 
mediaeval  saints.  They  were  marked  by  unvarying  sobriety  and 
benevolence,  because  they  were  the  expressions  of  His  character 
as  a  whole. 

81.  Thirdly,  His  miracles  were  symbols  of  His  spiritual  and 
saving  work.  You  have  only  to  consider  them  for  a  moment  to 
see  that  they  were,  as  a  whole,  triumphs  over  the  misery  of  the 
world.  Mankind  is  the  prey  of  a  thousand  evils,  and  even  the 
frame  of  external  nature  bears  the  mark  of  some  past  catas- 
trophe :  '  The  whole  creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain.' 
This  huge  mass  of  physical  evil  in  the  lot  of  mankind  is  the 
effect  of  sin.     Not  Uiat  every  disease  and  misfortune  can  be 


THE  YEAR  OF  PUBLIC  FAVOUR.  6 1 

traced  to  special  sin,  although  some  of  them  can.  The  con- 
sequences of  past  sin  are  distributed  in  detail  over  the  whole 
race.  But  yet  the  misery  of  the  world  is  the  shadow  of  its  sin. 
Material  and  moral  evil,  being  thus  intimately  related,  mutually 
illustrate  each  other.  When  He  healed  bodily  blindness,  it  was 
a  type  of  the  healing  of  the  inner  eye  ;  when  He  raised  the  dead. 
He  meant  to  suggest  that  He  was  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life 
in  the  spiritual  world  as  well ;  when  He  cleansed  the  leper.  His 
triumph  spoke  of  another  over  the  leprosy  of  sin  ;  when  He 
multiplied  the  loaves,  He  followed  the  miracle  with  a  discourse 
on  the  bread  of  life  ;  when  He  stilled  the  storm,  it  was  an  assur- 
ance that  He  could  speak  peace  to  the  troubled  conscience. 

82.  Thus  His  miracles  were  a  natural  and  essential  part  of  His 
Messianic  work.  They  were  an  excellent  means  of  making  Him 
known  to  the  nation.  They  bound  those  whom  He  cured  to 
Him  with  strong  ties  of  gratitude  ;  and  without  doubt,  in  many 
cases,  the  faith  in  Him  as  a  miracle-worker  led  on  to  a  higher 
faith.  So  it  was  in  the  case  of  His  devoted  follower  Mary 
Magdalene,  out  of  whom  He  cast  seven  devils. 

83.  To  Himself  this  work  must  have  brought  both  great  pain 
and  great  joy.  To  His  tender  and  exquisitely  sympathetic  heart, 
that  never  grew  callous  in  the  least  degree,  it  must  often  have 
been  harrowing  to  mingle  with  so  much  disease,  and  see  the 
awful  effects  of  sin.  But  He  was  in  the  right  place  ;  it  suited 
I  lis  great  love  to  be  where  help  was  needed.  And  what  a  joy  it 
must  have  been  to  Him  to  distribute  blessings  on  every  hand 
and  erase  the  traces  of  sin  ;  to  see  health  returning  beneath  His 
touch  ;  to  meet  the  joyous  and  grateful  glances  of  the  opening 
eyes ;  to  hear  the  blessings  of  mothers  and  sisters,  as  He  restored 
their  loved  ones  to  their  arms  ;  and  10  see  the  light  of  love  and 
welcome  in  the  faces  of  the  poor,  as  He  entered  their  towns  and 
villages.     He  drank  deeply  of  the  well  at  which  He  would  have 

jood. 

84.  Tlie  Teacher.  —  The    other  great    instrument    with    which 


62  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Jesus  did  His  work  was  His  teaching.  It  was  by  far  the  more 
important  of  the  two.  (His  miracles  were  only  the  bell  tolled  to 
bring  the  people  to  hear  His  words. )  They  impressed  those  who 
might  not  yet  be  susceptible  to  the  subtler  influence,  and  brought 
them  within  its  range. 

85.  The  miracles  probably  made  most  noise,  but  His  preach- 
ing also  spread  His  fame  far  and  wide.  There  is  no  power 
whose  attraction  is  more  unfailing  than  that  of  the  eloquent 
word.  Barbarians,  listening  to  their  bards  and  story-tellers, 
Greeks,  listening  to  the  restrained  passion  of  their  orators,  and 
matter-of-fact  nations  like  the  Roman,  have  alike  acknowledged 
its  power  to  be  irresistible.  The  Jews  prized  it  above  almost 
every  other  attraction,  and  among  the  figures  of  their  mighty 
dead  revered  none  more  highly  than  the  prophets, — those  elo- 
quent utterers  of  the  truth,  whom  Heaven  had  sent  them  from 
age  to  age.  Though  the  Baptist  did  no  miracles,  multitudes 
flocked  to  him,  because  in  his  accents  they  recognised  the 
thunder  of  this  power,  which  for  so  many  generations  no  Jewish 
ear  had  listened  to.  Jesus  also  was  recognised  as  a  prophet,  and 
accordingly  His  preaching  created  wide-spread  excitement.  *  He 
spake  in  their  synagogues,  being  glorified  of  all.'  His  words 
were  heard  with  wonder  and  amazement.  Sometimes  the  multi- 
tude on  the  beach  of  the  lake  so  pressed  upon  Him  to  hear,  that 
He  had  to  enter  into  a  ship  and  address  them  from  the  deck,  as 
they  spread  themselves  out  in  a  semicircle  on  the  ascending 
shore.  His  enemies  themselves  bore  witness  that  'never  man 
spake  like  this  man;'  and  meagre  as  are  the  remains  of  His 
preaching  which  we  possess,  they  are  amply  sufficient  to  make 
us  echo  the  sentiment  and  understand  the  impression  which  He 
produced.  All  His  words  together  which  have  been  preserved  to 
us  would  not  occupy  more  space  in  print  than  half-a-dozen  ordi- 
nary sermons ;  yet  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  they  are  the 
most  precious  literary  heritage  of  the  human  race.  His  words, 
like  His  miracles,  were  expressions  of  Himself,  and  every  one 
of  them  has  in  it  something  of  the  grandeur  of  His  character. 


THE  YEAR  OF  PUBLIC  FAVOUR-  63 

86.  The  form  of  the  preaching  of  Jesus  was  essentially  Jewish. 
The  Oriental  mind  does  not  work  in  the  same  way  as  the  mind 
of  the  West.  Our  thinking  and  speaking,  when  at  their  best,  are 
fluent,  expansive,  closely  reasoned.  The  kind  of  discourse  which// 
we  admire  is  one  which  takes  up  an  important  subject,  divides 
it  out  into  different  branches,  treats  it  fully  under  each  of  the 
heads,  closely  articulates  part  to  part,  and  closes  with  a  moving 
appeal  to  the  feelings,  so  as  to  sway  the  will  to  some  practical 
result.  The  Oriental  mind,  on  the  contrary,  loves  to  brood  long 
on  a  single  point,  to  turn  it  round  and  round,  to  gather  up  all  the 
truth  about  it  into  a  focus,  and  pour  it  forth  in  a  few  pointed  and 
memorable  words.  It  is  concise,  epigrammatic,  oracular.  A 
Western  speaker's  discourse  is  a  systematic  structure,  or  like  a 
chain  in  which  link  is  firmly  knit  to  link ;  an  Oriental's  is  like 
the  sky  at  night,  full  of  innumerable  burning  points  shining  forth 
from  a  dark  background. 

87.  Such  was  the  form  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  It  consisted 
of  numerous  sayings,  every  one  of  which  contained  the  greatest 
possible  amount  of  truth  in  the  smallest  possible  compass,  and 
was  expressed  in  language  so  concise  and  pointed  as  to  stick  in 
the  memory  like  an  arrow.  Read  them,  and  you  will  find  that 
every  one  of  them,  as  you  ponder  it,  sucks  the  mind  in  and  in 
like  a  whirlpool,  till  it  is  lost  in  the  depths.  You  will  find,  too, 
that  there  are  very  few  of  them  which  you  do  not  know  by  heart. 
They  have  found  their  way  into  the  memory  of  Christendom  as 
no  other  words  have  done.  Even  before  the  meaning  has  been 
apprehended,  the  perfect,  proverb-like  expression  lodges  itself 
fast  in  the  mind. 

88.  But  there  was  another  characteristic  of  the  form  of  Jesus 

teaching.  V It  was    full    of   fifj^ures nf  qppprh.     He  thought  in 

images.  He  had  ever  been  a  loving  and  accurate  observer  of 
nature  around  Him — of  the  colours  of  the  flowers,  the  ways  of 
the  birds,  the  growth  of  the  trees,  the  vicissitudes  of  the  seasons 
— and  an  equally  keen  observer  of  the  ways  of  men  in  all  parts 
of  life — in  religion,  in  busmess,  in  the  home.     The  result  was 


64  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

that  He  could  neither  think  nor  speak  without  His  thought  run- 
ning into  the  mould  of  some  natural  image.  His  preaching  was 
alive  with  such  references,  and  therefore  full  of  colour,  movement, 
and  changing  forms.\There  were  no  abstract  statements  in  it  ; 
they  were  all  changed  into  pictures.  Thus,  in  His  sayings,  tve 
can  still  see  the  aspects  of  the  country  and  the  life  of  the  time 
as  in  a  panorama, — the  lilies,  whose  gorgeous  beauty  His  eyes 
feasted  on,  waving  in  the  fields ;  the  sheep  following  the  shepherd; 
the  broad  and  narrow  city  gates  ;  the  virgins  with  their  lamps 
awaiting  in  the  darkness  the  bridal  procession ;  the  Pharisee 
with  his  broad  phylacteries  and  the  publican  with  bent  head  at 
prayer  together  in  the  temple  ;  the  rich  man  seated  in  his  palace 
at  a  feast,  and  the  beggar  lying  at  his  gate  with  the  dogs  licking 
his  sores  ;  and  a  hundred  other  pictures  that  lay  bare  the  inner 
and  minute  life  of  the  time,  over  which  history  in  general  sweeps 
heedlessly  with  majestic  stride. 

89.  But  the  most  characteristic  form  of  speech  He  made  use 
of  was  the  parable.  It  was  a  combination  of  the  two  quahties 
already  mentioned — concise,  memorable  expression,  and  a  figura- 
tive style.  It  used  an  incident,  taken  from  common  life  and 
rounded  into  a  gem-like  picture,  to  set  forth  some  corresponding 
truth  in  the  higher  and  spiritual  region.  It  was  a  favourite  Jewish 
mode  of  putting  truth,  but  Jesus  imparted  to  it  by  far  the  richest 
and  most  perfect  development.  V  About  one-third  of  all  His  say- 
ings which  have  been  preserved  to  us  consists  of  parables.  This 
shows  how  they  stuck  in  the  memory.  In  the  same  way  the 
hearers  of  the  sermons  of  any  preacher  will  probably,  after  a 
few  years,  remember  the  illustrations  they  have  contained  far 
better  than  anything  else  in  them.  How  these  parables  have 
remained  in  the  memory  of  all  generations  since  !  The  Prodigal 
Son,  the  Sower,  the  Ten  Virgins,  the  Good  Samaritan, — these 
and  many  others  are  pictures  hung  up  in  millions  of  minds. 
What  passages  in  the  greatest  masters  of  expression — in  Homer, 
in  Virgil,  in  Dante,  in  Shakspeare — have  secured  for  themselves 
so  universal  a  hold  on  men,  or  been  felt  to  be  so  fadelessly  fresh 


THE  YEAR  OF  PUHLIC  FAVOUR.  65 

and  true?  He  never  went  far  for  His  illustrations.  As  a  master 
uf  painting  will  make  you,  with  a  morsel  of  chalk  or  a  burnt  stick, 
a  face  at  which  you  must  laugh,  or  weep,  or  wonder,  so  Jesus  took 
the  commonest  objects  and  incidents  around  Him,— the  sewing 
of  a  piece  of  cloth  on  an  old  garment,  the  bursting  of  an  old 
bottle,  the  children  playing  in  the  market-place  at  weddings  and 
funerals,  or  the  tumbling  of  a  hut  in  a  storm, — to  change  them 
into  perfect  pictures,  and  make  them  the  vehicles  for  conveying 
to  the  world  immortal  truth.  No  wonder  the  crowds  followed 
Him  !  Even  the  simplest  could  delight  in  such  pictures  and 
carry  away  as  a  hfe-long  possession  the  expression  at  least  of 
His  ideas,  though  it  might  require  the  thought  of  centuries  to 
pierce  their  crystalline  depths.  There  never  was  speaking  so 
simple  yet  so  profound,  so  pictorial  yet  so  absolutely  true. 

90.  Such  were  the  qualities  of  His  style.  The  qualities  of  the 
Preacher  Himself  have  been  preserved  to  us  in  the  criticism  of 
His  hearers,  and  are  manifest  in  the  remains  of  His  addresses 
which  the  Gospels  contain. 

91.  The  most  prominent  of  them  seems  to  have  been  Authority. 
'  The  people  were  astonished  at  His  doctrine,  for  He  taught  them 
as  one  having  authority,  and  not  as  the  scribes.'  The  first  thing 
His  hearers  were  struck  with  was  the  contrast  between  His  words 
and  the  preaching  which  they  were  wont  to  hear  from  the  scribes 
in  the  synagogues.  These  were  the  exponents  of  the  deadest  and 
driest  system  of  theology  that  has  ever  passed  in  any  age  for 
religion.  Instead  of  expounding  the  Scriptures,  which  were  in 
their  hands,  and  would  have  lent  living  power  to  their  words, 

\;  they  retailed  the  opinions  of  commentators,  and  were  afraid  to 
advance  any  statement,  unless  it  were  backed  by  the  authority  cf 
some  master.  Instead  of  dwelling  on  the  great  themes  of  justice 
and  mercy,  love  and  God,  they  tortured  the  sacred  text  into  a 
ceremonial  manual,  and  preached  on  the  proper  breadth  of 
phylacteries,  the  proper  postures  for  prayer,  the  proper  length  of 
fasts,  the  distance  which  might  be  walked  on  the  Sabbath,  and  so 


66  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

forth  ;  for  in  these  things  the  religion  of  the  time  consisted.  In 
order  to  see  anything  in  modern  times  at  all  like  the  preaching 
which  then  prevailed,  we  must  go  back  to  the  Reformation  period, 
when,  as  the  historian  of  Knox  tells  us,  the  harangues  delivered 
by  the  monks  were  empty,  ridiculous,  and  wretched  in  the  ex- 
treme. '  Legendary  tales  concerning  the  founder  of  some  religious 
order,  the  miracles  he  performed,  his  combats  with  the  devil,  his 
watchings,  fastings,  flagellations ;  the  virtues  of  holy  water,  chrism, 
crossing,  and  exorcism  ;  the  horrors  of  purgatory,  and  the  numbers 
released  from  it  by  the  intercessions  of  some  powerful  saint, — these, 
with  low  jests,  table-talk,  and  fireside  scandal,  formed  the  favourite 
topics  of  the  preachers,  and  were  served  up  to  the  people  instead 
of  the  pure,  salutary,  and  sublime  doctrines  of  the  Bible.'  Per- 
haps the  contrast  which  the  Scottish  people  three  and  a  half 
centuries  ago  felt  between  such  harangues  and  the  noble  words 
of  Wishart  and  Knox,  may  convey  to  our  mind  as  good  an  idea 
as  can  be  got  of  the  effect  of  the  preaching  of  Jesus  on  His  con- 
temporaries. He  knew  nothing  of  the  authority  of  masters  and 
schools  of  interpretation,  but  spoke  as  One  whose  own  eyes  had 
gazed  on  the  objects  of  the  eternal  world.  He  needed  none  to 
tell  Him  of  God  or  of  man,  for  He  knew  both  perfectly.  He  was 
possessed  with  the  sense  of  a  mission,  which  drove  Him  on  and 
imparted  earnestness  to  every  word  and  gesture.  He  knew  Him- 
self sent  from  God,  and  the  words  He  spoke  to  be  not  His  own, 
but  God's.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  tell  those  who  neglected  His 
words  that  in  the  judgment  they  would  be  condemned  by  the 
Ninevites  and  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  who  had  listened  to  Jonah 
and  Solomon,  for  they  were  hearing  One  greater  than  any  prophet 
or  king  of  the  olden  time.  He  warned  them  that  on  their  accept- 
ance or  rejection  of  the  message  He  bore  would  depend  their 
future  weal  or  woe.  This  was  the  tone  of  earnestness,  of  majesty 
and  authority  that  smote  His  hearers  with  awe. 

92.  Another  quality  which  the  people  remarked  in  Him  was 
Boldness  :  '  Lo,  He  speaketh  boldly.'  This  appeared  the  more 
wonderful  because  He  was  an  unlettered  man,  who  had  not  passed 


THE  YEAR  OK  PUBLIC  FAVOUR.  67 

through  the  schools  of  Jerusalem  or  received  the  imprimatur 
of  any  earthly  authority.  But  this  quality  came  from  the  same 
source  as  His  authoritativeness.  Timidity  usually  springs  from 
self-consciousness.  The  preacher  who  is  afraid  of  his  audience, 
and  respects  the  persons  of  the  learned  and  the  great,  is  thinking  of 
himself  and  of  what  will  be  said  of  his  performance.  But  he  who 
feels  himself  driven  on  by  a  divine  mission  forgets  himself.  All 
audiences  are  alike  to  him,  be  they  gentle  or  simple  ;  he  is  think- 
ing only  of  the  message  he  has  to  deliver.  Jesus  was  ever  looking 
the  spiritual  and  eternal  realities  in  the  face  ;  the  spell  of  their 
greatness  held  Him,  and  all  human  distinctions  disappeared  in 
their  presence  ;  men  of  every  class  were  only  men  to  Him.  He 
was  borne  along  on  the  torrent  of  His  mission,  and  what  might 
happen  to  Himself  could  not  make  Him  stop  to  question  or  quail. 
He  discovered  His  boldness  chiefly  in  attacking  the  abuses  and 
ideals  of  the  time.  It  would  be  a  complete  mistake  to  think  ol 
Him  as  all  mildness  and  meekness.  There  is  scarcely  any  cle- 
ment more  conspicuous  in  His  words  than  a  strain  of  fierce 
indignation.  It  was  an  age  of  shams  above  almost  any  that  have 
\/  ever  been.  They  occupied  all  high  places.  They  paraded  them- 
selves in  social  life,  occupied  the  chairs  of  learning,  and  above 
all  debased  every  part  of  religion.  Hypocrisy  had  become  so 
universal  that  it  had  ceased  even  to  doubt  itself.  The  ideals  of 
the  people  were  utterly  mean  and  mistaken.  One  can  feel 
throbbing  through  His  words,  from  first  to  last,  an  indignation 
against  all  this,  which  had  begun  with  His  earliest  observation  in 
Nazareth  and  ripened  with  His  increasing  knowledge  of  the  times. 
The  things  which  wei^e  highly  esteemed  among  men.  He  broadly 
asserted,  were  abomination  in  the  sight  of  God.  There  never  was 
in  the  history  of  speech  a  polemic  so  scathing,  so  annihilating,  as 
His  against  the  figures  to  which  the  reverence  of  the  multitude 
had  been  paid  before  His  withering  words  fell  on  them — the 
scribe,  the  Pharisee,  the  priest,  and  the  Levite. 

93.  A  third  quality  which  His  hearers  remarked  was  Power  : 
*  Ilia  word  was  with  power.'     This  was  the  result  of  that  unction 


V 


68  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

of  the  Holy  One,  without  which  even  the  most  solemn  truths  fall 
on  the  ear  without  effect.  He  was  filled  with  the  Spirit  without 
measure.  Therefore  the  truth  possessed  Him.  It  burned  and 
swelled  in  His  own  bosom,  and  He  spoke  it  forth  from  heart  to 
heart.  He  had  the  Spirit  not  only  in  such  degree  as  to  fill  Him- 
self, but  so  as  to  be  able  to  impart  it  to  others.  It  overflowea 
with  His  words  and  seized  the  souls  of  His  hearers,  filling  with 
enthusiasm  the  mind  and  the  heart. 

94.  A  fourth  quality  which  was  observed  in  His  preaching, 
and  was  surely  a  very  prominent  one,  was  Graciousness :  '  They 
wondered  at  the  gracious  words  which  proceeded  out  of  His 
mouth.'  In  spite  of  His  tone  of  authority  and  His  fearless  and 
scathing  attacks  on  the  times,  there  was  diffused  over  all  He 
said  a  glow  of  grace  and  love.  Here  especially  His  character 
spoke.  How  could  He  who  was  the  incarnation  of  love  help 
letting  the  glow  and  warmth  of  the  heavenly  fire  that  dwelt  in 
Him  spread  over  His  words  ?  The  scribes  of  the  time  were 
hard,  proud,  and  loveless.  They  flattered  the  rich  and  honoured 
the  learned,  but  of  the  great  mass  of  their  hearers  they  said, 
*  This  people,  which  knoweth  not  the  law,  is  cursed.'  But  to  Jesus 
every  soul  was  infinitely  precious.  It  mattered  not  under  what 
humble  dress  or  social  deformity  the  pearl  was  hidden  ;  it 
mattered  not  even  beneath  what  rubbish  and  filth  of  sin  it  was 
buried  ;  He  never  missed  it  for  a  moment.  Therefore  He  spoke 
to  His  hearers  of  every  grade  with  the  same  respect.  Surely  it 
was  the  divine  love  itself,  uttering  itself  from  the  innermost  recess 
of  the  divine  being,  that  spoke  in  the  parables  of  the  fifteenth  of 
Luke. 

95.  Such  were  some  of  the  qualities  of  the  Preacher.  And  one 
more  may  be  mentioned,  which  may  be  said  to  embrace  all  the 
rest,  and  is  perhaps  the  highest  quality  of  public  speech.  He 
addressed  men  as  men,  not  as  members  of  any  class  or  possessors 
of  any  peculiar  culture.  The  differences  which  divide  men,  such 
as  wealth,  rank,  and  education,  are  on  the  surface.  The  elements 
in  which  they  are  all  alike — the  broad  sense  of  the  understand- 


THE  YEAR  OF  PUBLIC  FAVOUR.  6g 

ing,  ihe  great  passions  of  the  heart,  the  primary  instincts  of  the 
conscience — arc  profound.  Not  that  these  are  the  same  in  all 
men.  In  some  they  are  deeper,  in  others  shallower;  but  in  all 
they  are  far  deeper  than  aught  else.  He  who  addresses  them 
appeals  to  the  deepest  thing  in  His  hearers.  He  will  be  equally 
intelligible  to  all.  Every  hearer  will  receive  his  own  portiow 
from  Him  ;  the  small  and  shallow  mind  will  get  as  much  as  it 
can  take,  and  the  largest  and  deepest  will  get  its  fill  at  the 
same  feast.  This  is  why  the  words  of  Jesus  are  perennial  in  their 
freshness.  They  are  for  all  generations,  and  equally  for  all. 
They  appeal  to  the  deep:,;  L.iri.nts  in  human  nature  to-day  in 
England  or  China  as  much  as  they  did  in  Palestine  when  they 
were  spoken. 

96.  When  we  come  to  inquire  what  the  matter  ot  Jesus'  preach- 
ing consisted  of,  we  perhaps  naturally  expect  to  find  Him  expound- 
ing the  system  of  doctrine  which  we  are  ourselves  acquainted 
A'ith,  in  the  forms,  say,  of  the  Catechism  or  the  Confession  of 
Faith.     But  what  we  find  is  very  different.     He  did  not  make  use 

V  of  any  system  of  doctrine.  We  can  scarcely  doubt,  indeed,  that 
all  the  numerous  and  varied  ideas  of  His  preaching,  as  well  as 
those  which  He  never  expressed,  co-existed  in  His  mind  as  one 
world  of  rounded  truth.  But  they  did  not  so  co-exist  in  His 
teaching.  He  did  not  use  theological  phraseology,  speaking  of 
the  Trinity,  of  predestination,  of  efi'ectual  calhng,  although  the 
ideas  which  these  terms  cover  underlay  His  words,  and  it  is  the 
undoubted  task  of  science  to  bring  them  forth.  But  He  spoke 
in  the  language  of  life,  and  concentrated  His  preaching  on  a  few 
burning  points,  that  touched  the  heart,  the  conscience,  and  the 
time. 

97.  The  central  idea  and  the  commonest  phrase  of  His  preach- 
ing was  *  the  kingdom  of  God.'  It  will  be  remembered  Low  many 
\)f  His  parables  begin  with  '  The  kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like'  so 
and  so.  He  said,  '  Imust  preacji  the  kingdom  of  God  to  other 
cities  also/  thereby  characterising  the  matter  of  His  preaching  ; 


70  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

and  in  the  same  way  He  is  said  to  have  sent  forth  the  apostles  '  to 
preach  the  kingdom  of  God.'  He  did  not  invent  the  phrase.  It 
was  a  historical  one  handed  down  from  the  past,  and  was  common 
in  the  mouths  of  His  contemporaries.  The  Baptist  had  made 
large  use  of  it,  the  burden  of  his  message  being,  '  The  kingdom 
of  God  is  at  hand.' 

98.  What  did  it  signify?  It  meant  the  new  era,  which  the 
prophets  had  predicted  and  the  saints  had  looked  for.  Jesus 
announced  that  it  had  come,  and  that  He  had  brought  it.  The 
time  of  waiting  was  fulfilled.  Many  prophets  and  righteous  men, 
He  told  His  contemporaries,  had  desired  to  see  the  things  which 
they  saw,  but  had  not  seen  them.  He  declared  that  so  great 
were  the  privileges  and  glories  of  the  new  time,  that  the  least 
partaker  of  them  was  greater  than  the  Baptist,  though  he  had 
been  the  greatest  representative  of  the  old  time. 

99.  All  this  was  no  more  than  His  contemporaries  would  have 
expected  to  hear,  if  they  had  recognised  that  the  kingdom  of 
God  was  really  come.  But  they  looked  round,  and  asked  where 
the  new  era  was  which  Jesus  said  He  had  brought.  Here  He 
and  they  were  at  complete  variance.  They  emphasized  the  first 
part  of  the  phrase,  '  the  kingdom,'  He  the  second,  *  of  God.' 
They  expected  the  new  era  to  appear  in  magnificent  material 
forms, — in  a  kingdom  of  which  God  indeed  was  to  be  the  Ruler, 
but  which  was  to  show  itself  in  worldly  splendour,  in  force  of 
arms,  in  a  universal  empire.  Jesus  saw  the  new  era  in  an 
empire  of  God  over  the  loving  heart  and  the  obedient  will. 
They  looked  for  it  outside.  He  said,  '  It  is  within  you.'  They 
looked  for  a  period  of  external  glory  and  happiness.  He  placed 
the  glory  and  blessedness  of  the  new  time  in  character.  So  He 
began  His  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  that  great  manifesto  of  the 
new  era,  with  a  series  of  '  Blesseds.'  But  the  blessedness  was 
entirely  that  of  character.  And  it  was  a  character  totally 
different  from  that  which  was  then  looked  up  to  as  imparting 
glory  and  happiness  to  its  possessor — that  of  the  proud  Pharisee, 
the  wealthy  Sadducee,  or  the  learned  scribe.     Blessed,  said  He, 


THE  YEAR  OF  PUBLIC  FAVOUR.  7I 

arc  the  poor  in  spirit,  they  that  mourn,  the  meek,  they  which  do 
hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness,  the  merciful,  the  pure  in 
heart,  the  peacemakers,  they  which  are  persecuted  for  righteous- 
ness' sake. 

100.  The  main  drift  of  His  preaching  was  to  set  forth  this 
conception  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  the  character  of  its  members, 
their  blessedness  in  the  love  and  communion  of  their  Father  in 
heaven,  and  their  prospects  in  the  glory  of  the  future  world. 
I  le  exhibited  the  contrast  between  it  and  the  formal  religion  of  the 
time,  with  its  lack  of  spirituality  and  its  substitution  of  cere- 
monial observances  for  character.  He  invited  all  classes  into  the 
kingdom, — the  rich  by  showing,  as  in  the  parable  of  the  Rich  Man 
and  Lazarus,  the  vanity  and  danger  of  seeking  their  blessedness 
in  wealth  ;  and  the  poor  by  penetrating  them  with  the  sense  of 
their  dignity,  persuading  them  with  the  most  overflowing  affec- 
tion and  winning  words  that  the  only  true  wealth  was  in 
character,  and  assuring  them  that,  if  they  sought  first  the  king- 
dom of  God,  their  heavenly  Father,  who  fed  the  ravens  and 
clothed  the  lilies,  would  not  suffer  them  to  want. 

1 01.  But  the  centre  and  soul  of  His  preaching  was  Himself. 
He  contained  within  Himself  the  new  era.  He  not  only  an- 
nounced it,  but  created  it.  The  new  character  which  made  men 
subjects  of  the  kingdom  and  sharers  of  its  privileges  was  to  be 
got  from  Him  alone.  Therefore  the  practical  issue  of  every 
address  of  Christ  was  the  command  to  come  to  Him,  to  learn  of 
Him,  to  follow  Him.  '  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are 
heavy  laden,'  was  the  key-note,  the  deepest  and  final  word  of  all 
His  discourses. 

102.  It  is  impossible  to  read  the  discourses  of  Jesus  without 
remarking  that,  wonderful  as  they  are,  yet  some  of  the  most 
characteristic  doctrines  of  Christianity,  as  it  is  set  forth  in  the 
epistles  of  Paul  and  now  cherished  in  the  minds  of  the  most 
devoted  and  enlightened  Christians,  hold  a  very  inconsiderable 
place  in  them.  Especially  is  this  the  case  in  regard  to  the  great 
doctrines  of  the  gospel  as  to  how  a  sinner  is  reconciled  to  God, 


72  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

and  how,  in  a  pardoned  soul,  the  character  is  gradually  produced 
which  makes  it  like  Christ  and  pleasing  to  the  Father.  The 
lack  of  reference  to  such  doctrines  may  indeed  be  much  exag- 
gerated, the  fact  being  that  there  is  not  one  prominent  doctrine 
of  the  great  apostle  the  germs  of  which  are  not  to  be  found 
in  the  teaching  of  Christ  Himself.  Yet  the  contrast  is  marked 
enough  to  have  given  some  colour  for  denying  that  the  distinc- 
tive doctrines  of  Paul  are  genuine  elements  of  Christianity.  But 
the  true  explanation  of  the  phenomenon  is  very  different.  Jesus 
was  not  a  mere  teacher.  His  character  was  greater  than  His 
words,  and  so  was  His  work.  The  chief  part  of  that  work  was 
to  atone  for  the  sins  of  the  world  by  His  death  on  the  cross. 
But  His  nearest  followers  never  would  believe  that  He  was  to 
die,  and,  until  His  death  happened,  it  was  impossible  to  explain 
its  far-reaching  significance.  Paul's  most  distinctiv^e  doctrines 
are  merely  expositions  of  thejmeajiiixg_^f  Jwq^^eat.  fai:l§,rr.tha. 
death  of  Christ,  and  the  mission  of  the  Spirit  by  the  glorified 
Redeemer.  It  is  obvious  that  these  facts  could  not  be  fully 
explained  in  the  words  of  Jesus  Himself,  when  they  had  not  yet 
taken  place ;  but  to  suppress  the  inspired  explanation  of  them 
would  be  to  extinguish  the  light  of  the  gospel  and  rob  Christ  of 
His  crowning  glory. 

103.  The  audience  of  Jesus  varied  exceedingly  both  in  si^e 
and  character  on  different  occasions.  Very  frequently  it  was 
the  great  multitude.  He  addressed  them  everywhere — on  the 
mountain,  on  the  sea-shore,  on  the  highway,  in  the  synagogues, 
in  the  temple  courts.  But  He  was  quite  as  willing  to  speak 
■with  a  single  individual,  however  humble.  He  seized  every 
opportunity  of  doing  so.  Although  He  was  worn  -  out  with 
fatigue,  He  talked  to  the  woman  at  the  well ;  He  received 
Nicodemus  alone ;  He  taught  Mary  in  her  home.  Vphere  are 
said  to  be  nineteen  such  private  interviews  mentioned  in  the 
Gospels,  They  leave  to  His  followers  a  memorable  example. 
This  is  perhaps  the  most  cfiective  of  all  forms  of  instruction, 


THE  YEAR  OF  PUBLIC  FAVOUR.  73 

as  it  is  certainly  the  best  test  of  earnestness.  A  man  who 
preaches  to  thousands  with  enthusiasm  may  be  a  mere  orator, 
but  the  man  who  seeks  opportunities  of  speaking  closely  on  the 
welfare  of  their  souls  to  individuals  must  have  a  real  fire  from 
heaven  burning  in  his  heart. 

104.  Often  His  audience  consisted  of  the  circle  of  His  disciples. 
His  preaching  divided  His  hearers.  He  has  Himself,  in  such 
parables  as  the  Sower,  the  Tares  and  the  Wheat,  the  Wedding 
Feast  and  so  forth,  described  with  unequalled  vividness  its  effects 
on  different  classes.  Some  it  utterly  repelled;  others  heard  it 
with  wonder,  without  being  touched  in  the  heart ;  others  were 
affected  for  a  time,  but  soon  returned  to  their  old  interests. 
It  is  terrible  to  think  how  few  there  were,  even  when  the  Son 
of  God  was  preaching,  who  heard  unto  salvation.  Those  who 
did  so,  gradually  formed  round  Him  a  body  of  disciples.  They 
followed  Him  about,  hearing  all  His  discourses,  and  often  He 
spoke  to  them  alone.  Such  were  the  five  hundred  to  whom  He 
appeared  in  Galilee  after  His  resurrection.  Some  of  them  were 
women,  such  as  Mary  Magdalene,  Susanna,  and  Joanna  the  wife 
of  Herod's  steward,  who,  being  wealthy,  gladly  supplied  His  few 
simple  wants.  To  these  disciples  He  gave  a  more  thorough 
instruction  than  to  the  crowd.  He  explained  to  them  in  private 
whatever  was  obscure  in  His  public  teaching.  More  than  once 
He  made  the  strange  statement  that  He  spake  in  parables  to  the 
multitudes  in  order  that,  though  hearing,  they  might  not  under- 
stand. This  could  only  mean,  that  those  who  had  no  real 
interest  in  the  truth  were  sent  away  with  the  mere  beautiful 
shell,  but  that  the  obscurity  was  intended  to  provoke  to  further 
inquiry,  as  a  veil  half-drawn  over  a  beautiful  face  intensifies  the 
desire  to  see  it;  and  to  those  who  had  a  spiritual  craving  for 
more  He  gladly  communicated  the  hidden  secret.  These,  when 
the  nation  as  a  whole  declared  itself  unworthy  of  being  the 
medium  of  the  Messiah's  world-wide  influence,  became  the 
nucleus  of  that  spiritual  society,  elevated  above  all  local  limita- 
tions  and   distinctions   of  rank   and   nationality,  in  which  the 


74  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

spirit  and  doctrine  of  Christ  were  to  be  spread  and  perpetuated 
in  the  world, 

105.  The  Apostolate. — Perhaps  the  formation  of  the  Apostolate 
ought  to  be  placed  side  by  side  with  miracles  and  preaching  as 
a  third  means  by  which  He  did  His  work.  The  men  who 
became  the  twelve  apostles  were  at  first  only  ordinary  disciples 
like  many  others.  This,  at  least,  was  the  position  of  such  of 
them  as  were  already  His  followers  during  the  first  year  of  His 
ministry.  At  the  opening  of  His  Galilean  activity,  their  attach- 
ment to  Him  entered  on  a  second  stage ;  He  called  them  to  give 
up  their  ordinary  employments  and  be  with  Him  constantly. 
And  probably  not  many  weeks  afterwards,  He  promoted  them 
to  the  third  and  final  stage  of  nearness  to  Himself,  by  ordaining 
them  to  be  apostles. 

106.  It  was  when  His  work  grew  so  extensive  and  pressing 
that  it  was  quite  impossible  for  Him  to  overtake  it  all,  that  He 
multiplied  Himself,  so  to  speak,  by  appointing  them  His  assist- 
ants. He  commissioned  them  to  teach  the  simpler  elements  of 
His  doctrine,  and  conferred  on  them  miraculous  powers  similar 
to  His  own.  In  this  way  many  towns  were  evangelized  which 
He  had  not  time  to  visit,  and  many  persons  cured  who  could  not 
have  been  brought  into  contact  with  Himself.  But,  as  future 
events  proved,  His  aims  in  their  appointment  were  much  more 
far-reaching.  His  work  was  for  all  time  and  for  the  whole  world. 
It  could  not  be  accomplished  in  a  single  lifetime.  He  foresaw 
this,  and  made  provision  for  it  by  the  early  choice  of  agents  who 
might  take  up  His  plans  after  He  was  gone,  and.  in  whom  He 
might  still  extend  His  influence  over  mankind.  "^He  Himself 
wrote  nothing.  It  may  be  thought  that  writing  would  have  been 
the  best  way  of  perpetuating  His  influence,  and  giving  the  world 
a  perfect  image  of  Himself;  and  we  cannot  help  imagining  with 
a  glow  of  strong  desire  what  a  volume  penned  by  His  hand  would 
have  been.  But  for  wise  reasons  He  abstained  from  this  kind  of 
work  and  resolved  to  live  after  death  in  the  lives  of  chosen  men. 


THE  YEAR  OF  PUBLIC  FAVOUR- 


75 


107.  It  is  surprising  to  see  what  sort  of  persons  He  selected 
for  so  grand  a  destiny.  They  did  not  belong  to  the  inlluential 
and  learned  classes.  No  doubt  the  heads  and  leaders  of  the 
nation  ought  to  have  been  the  organs  of  their  Messiah,  but 
they  proved  themselves  totally  unworthy  of  the  great  vocation 
He  was  able  to  do  without  them  ;  He  needed  not  the  influ- 
ence of  carnal  power  and  wisdom.  Ever  wont  to  work  with  the 
elements  of  character  that  are  not  bound  to  any  station  of  life  or 
grade  of  culture,  He  did  not  scruple  to  commit  His  cause  to 
twelve  simple  men,  destitute  of  learning  and  belonging  to  the 
common  people.  He  made  the  selection  after  a  night  spent  in 
prayer,  and  doubtless  after  many  days  of  deliberation.  The 
event  showed  with  what  insight  into  character  He  had  acted. 
They  turned  out  to  be  instruments  thoroughly  fitted  for  the  great 
design  ;  two  at  least,  John  and  Peter,  were  men  of  supreme 
gifts  ;  and,  though  one  turned  out  a  traitor,  and  the  choice 
of  him  will  probably,  after  all  explanations,  ever  remain  a  very 
partially  explained  mystery,  yet  the  selection  of  agents  who 
were  at  first  so  unlikely,  but  in  the  end  proved  so  successful,  will 
always  be  one  of  the  chief  monuments  of  the  incomparable 
originality  of  Jesus. 

loS.  It  would,  however,  be  a  very  inadequate  account  of  His 
relation  to  the  Twelve  merely  to  point  out  the  insight  with  which 
1  le  discerned  in  them  the  germs  of  fitness  for  their  grand  future. 
They  became  very  great  men,  and  in  the  founding  of  the  Christian 
Church  achieved  a  work  of  immeasurable  importance.  They 
may  be  said,  in  a  sense  they  httle  dreamed  of,  to  sit  on  thrones 
ruling  the  modern  world.  They  stand  like  a  row  of  noble  pillars 
towering  afar  across  the  flats  of  time.  But  the  sunlight  that 
shines  on  them,  and  makes  them  visible,  comes  entirely  from 
Him.  He  gave  them  all  their  greatness  ;  and  theirs  is  one  of 
the  most  striking  evidences  of  His.  What  must  He  have  been 
whose  influence  imparted  to  them  such  magnitude  of  character, 
and  made  them  fit  for  so  gigantic  a  task  I  At  first  they  were 
rude  and  carnal  in  the  extreme.     What  hope  was  there  that  they 


76  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

would  ever  be  able  to  appreciate  the  designs  of  a  mind  like  His, 
to  inherit  His  work,  to  possess  in  any  degree  a  spirit  so  exquisite, 
and  transmit  to  future  generations  a  faithful  image  of  His 
character?  But  He  educated  them  with  the  most  affectionate 
patience,  bearing  with  their  vulgar  hopes  and  their  clumsy  mis- 
understandings of  His  meaning.  Never  forgetting  for  a  moment 
the  part  they  were  to  play  in  the  future,  He  made  their  training 
His  most  constant  work.  They  were  much  more  constantly  in 
His  company  than  even  the  general  body  of  His  disciples,  seeing 
all  He  did  in  public  and  hearing  all  He  said.  They  were  often 
His  only  audience,  and  then  He  unveiled  to  them  the  glories 
and  mysteries  of  His  doctrine,  sowing  in  their  minds  the  seeds 
of  truth,  which  time  and  experience  were  by  and  by  to  fructify. 
But  the  most  important  part  of  their  training  was  one  which  was 
perhaps  at  the  time  little  noticed,  though  it  was  producing 
splendid  results, — the  silent  and  constant  influence  of  His 
character  on  theirs.  He  drew  them  to  Himself  and  stamped 
His  own  image  on  them.  It  was  this  which  made  them  the  men 
they  became.  For  this,  more  than  all  else,  the  generations  of 
those  who  love  Him  look  back  to  them  with  envy.  We  admire 
and  adore  at  a  distance  the  qualities  of  His  character  ;  but  what 
must  it  have  been  to  see  them  in  the  unity  of  life,  and  for  years 
to  feel  their  moulding  pressure  !  Can  we  recall  with  any  fulness 
the  features  of  this  character  whose  glory  they  beheld  and 
under  whose  power  they  lived  ? 

109.  The  Human  Character  of  Jesus. — Perhaps  the  most  obvious 
feature  which  they  would  remark  in  Him  was  Purposefulness. 
This  certainly  is  the  ground-tone  which  sounds  in  all  His  say- 
ings which  have  been  preserved  to  us,  and  the  pulse  which  we 
feel  beating  in  all  His  recorded  actions.  He  was  possessed  with 
a  purpose  which  guided  and  drove  Him  on.  Moct  lives  aim  at 
nothing  in  particular,  but  drift  along,  under  the  influence  of 
varying  moods  and  instincts  or  on  the  currents  of  society,  and 
achieve  nothing.      But  Jesus   evidently  had   a   definite   object 


THE  YEAR  OF  PUBLIC  FAVOUR.  77 

before  Him,  which  absorbed  His  thoughts  and  drew  out  His 
energies.  He  would  often  give  as  a  reason  for  not  doing  some- 
thing, 'Mine  hour  is  not  yet  come,' as  if  His  design  absorbed 
every  moment,  and  every  hour  had  its  own  allotted  part  of  the 
task.  This  imparted  an  earnestness  and  rapidity  of  execution 
to  His  life  which  most  lives  altogether  lack.  It  saved  Him,  too, 
from  that  dispersion  of  energy  on  details,  and  carefulness  about 
little  things,  on  which  those  who  obey  no  definite  call  throw 
themselves  away,  and  made  His  life,  various  as  were  its  activities, 
an  unbroken  unity. 

no.  Very  closely  connected  with  this  quality  was  another  pro- 
minent one,  which  may  be  called  Fakji,  and  by  which  is  meant 
His  astonishing  confidence  in  the  accomplishment  of  His  pur- 
pose, and  apparent  disregard  both  of  means  and  opposition. 
If  it  be  considered  in  the  most  general  way  how  vast  His  aim 
Was — to  reform  His  nation  and  begin  an  everlasting  and  world- 
wide religious  movement ;  if  the  opposition  which  He  encoun- 
tered, and  foresaw  His  cause  would  have  to  meet  at  every  stage 
of  its  progress,  be  considered  ;  and  if  it  be  remembered  what, 
as  a  man,  He  was — an  unlettered  Galilean  peasant — His  quiet 
and  unwavering  confidence  in  His  success  will  appear  only  less 
remarkable  than  His  success  itself.  After  reading  the  Gospels 
through,  one  asks  in  wonder  what  He  did  to  produce  so  mighty 
an  impression  on  the  world.  He  constructed  no  elaborate 
machinery  to  ensure  the  effect.  He  did  not  lay  hold  of  the 
centres  of  influence — learning,  wealth,  government,  etc.  It  is 
true  He  instituted  the  Church.  But  He  left  no  detailed  explana- 
tions of  its  nature  or  rules  for  its  constitution.  This  was  the 
simplicity  of  faith,  which  does  not  contrive  and  prepare,  but 
simply  goes  forward  and  does  the  work.  It  was  the  quality 
which  He  said  could  remove  mountains,  and  which  He  chiefly 
desiderated  in  His  followers.  This  was  the  foolishness  of  the 
gospel,  of  which  Paul  boasted,  as  it  was  going  forth,  in  the  reck- 
lessness of  power,  but  with  laughable  meagreness  of  equipment, 
to  overcome  the  Greek  and  Roman  world. 


^ 


78  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRISY. 

III.  A  third  prominent  feature  of  His  character  was  Origin- 
ality. Most  lives  are  easily  explained.  They  are  mere  products 
of  circumstances,  and  copies  of  thousands  like  them  which  sur- 
round or  have  preceded  them.  The  habits  and  customs  of  the 
country  to  which  we  belong,  the  fashions  and  tastes  of  our 
generation,  the  traditions  of  our  education,  the  prejudices  of 
our  class,  the  opinions  of  our  school  or  sect, — these  form  us. 
We  do  work  determined  for  us  by  a  fortuitous  concourse  of 
circumstances  ;  our  convictions  are  fixed  on  us  by  authority 
from  without,  instead  of  waxing  naturally  from  within  ;  our 
opinions  are  blown  to  us  in  fragments  on  every  wind.  But  what 
circumstances  made  the  Man  Christ  Jesus  ?  There  never  was 
an  age  more  dry  and  barren  than  that  in  which  He  was  born. 
He  was  like  a  tall,  fresh  palm  springing  out  of  a  desert.  What 
was  there  in  the  petty  life  of  Nazareth  to  produce  so  gigantic  a 
character?  How  could  the  notoriously  wicked  village  send  forth 
such  breathing  purity  ?  It  may  have  been  that  a  scribe  taught 
Him  the  vocables  and  grammar  of  knowledge,  but  His  doctrine 
was  a  complete  contradiction  of  all  that  the  scribes  taught.  The 
fashions  of  the  sects  never  laid  hold  of  His  free  spirit.  How 
clearly,  amidst  the  sounds  which  filled  the  ears  of  His  time,  He 
heard  the  neglected  voice  of  truth,  which  was  quite  different 
from  them !  How  clearly,  behind  all  the  pretentious  and 
accepted  forms  of  piety,  He  saw  the  lovely  and  neglected  figure 
of  real  godliness !  He  cannot  be  explained  by  anything  which 
was  in  the  world  and  might  have  produced  Him.  He  grew 
from  within.  He  directed  His  eyes  straight  on  the  facts  of 
nature  and  life  and  believed  what  He  saw,  instead  of  allowing 
His  vision  to  be  tutored  by  what  others  had  said  they  saw.  He 
was  equally  loyal  to  the  truth  in  His  words.  He  went  forth  and 
spoke  out  without  hesitation  what  He  believed,  though  it  shook 
to  their  foundations  the  institutions,  the  creeds,  and  customs  of 
His  country,  and  loosened  the  opinions  of  the  populace  in  a 
hundred  points  in  which  they  had  been  educated.  It  may, 
indeed,  be  said  that,  though  the  Jewish  nation  of  His  own  time 


THE  YEAR  OF  PUBLIC  FAVOUR.  79 

was  an  utterly  dry  ground,  out  of  which  no  green  and  great  thing 
could  be  expected  to  grow,  He  reverted  to  the  earlier  history 
of  His  nation  and  nourished  His  mind  on  the  ideas  of  Moses  and 
the  prophets.  There  is  some  truth  in  this.  But  affectionate 
and  constant  as  was  His  familiarity  with  them,  He  handled  them 
with  a  free  and  fearless  hand.  He  redeemed  them  from  them- 
selves and  exhibited  in  perfection  the  ideas  which  they  taught 
only  in  germ.  What  a  contrast  between  the  covenant  God  of 
Israel  and  the  Father  in  heaven  whom  He  revealed  ;  between 
the  temple,  with  its  priests  and  bloody  sacrifices,  and  the  worship 
in  spirit  and  in  truth  ;  between  the  national  and  ceremonial 
morality  of  the  Law  and  the  morality  ot  the  conscience  and  the 
heart  !  Even  in  comparison  with  the  figures  of  Moses,  Elijah, 
and  Isaiah,  He  towers  aloft  in  lonely  originality. 

112.  A  fourth  and  very  glorious  feature  of  His  character  was 
Lavej9_M£ii.  It  has  been  already  said  that  He  was  possessed 
with  an  overmastering  purpose.  But  beneath  a  great  life-purpose 
there  must  be  a  great  passion,  which  shapes  and  sustains  it. 
Love  to  men  was  the  passion  which  directed  and  inspired  Him. 
How  it  sprang  up  and  grew  in  the  seclusion  ot  Nazareth,  and  on 
what  materials  it  fed,  we  have  not  been  informed  with  any  detail. 
We  only  know  that,  when  He  appeared  in  public,  it  was  a  master- 
passion,  which  completely  swallowed  up  self-love,  filled  Him  with 
boundless  pity  for  human  misery,  and  enabled  Him  to  go  forward 
without  once  looking  back  in  the  undertaking  to  which  He 
devoted  Himself.  We  know  only  in  general  that  it  drew  its 
support  from  the  conception  He  had  of  the  infinite  value  of  the 
human  soul.  It  overlcapt  all  the  limits  which  other  men  have 
put  to  their  benevolence.  Differences  of  class  and  nationality 
usually  cool  men's  interest  in  each  other  ;  in  nearly  all  countries 
it  has  been  considered  a  virtue  to  hate  enemies  ;  and  it  is 
generally  agreed  to  loathe  and  avoid  those  who  have  outraged 
the  laws  of  respectability.  But  He  paid  no  heed  to  these  con- 
rcntions  ;  the  overpowering  sense  of  the  preciousness  which  He 
perceived  in  enemy,  foreigner,  and  outcast  alike,  forbidding  Mini. 


8o  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

This  marvellous  love  shaped  the  purpose  of  His  life.  It  gave 
Him  the  most  tender  and  intense  sympathy  with  every  form  of 
pain  and  misery.  It  was  His  deepest  reason  for  adopting  the 
calling  of  a  healer.  Wherever  help  was  most  needed,  thither 
His  merciful  heart  drew  Him.  But  it  was  especially  to  save  the  soul 
that  His  love  impelled  Him.  He  knew  this  was  the  real  jewel, 
which  everything  should  be  done  to  rescue,  and  that  its  miseries 
and  perils  were  the  most  dangerous  of  all.  There  has  sometimes 
been  love  to  others  without  this  vital  aim.  But  His  love  was 
directed  by  wisdom  to  the  truest  weal  of  those  He  loved.  He 
Knew  He  was  doing  His  very  best  for  them  when  He  was  saving 
them  from  their  sins. 

113.  But  the  crowning  attribute  of  His  human  character  was 
c=  Love  to  God.  It  is  the  supreme  honour  and  attainment  of  man 
to  be  one  with  God  in  feeling,  thought,  and  purpose.  Jesus 
had  this  in  perfection.  To  us  it  is  very  difficult  to  realize  God. 
The  mass  of  men  scarcely  think  about  Him  at  all  j  and  even 
the  godliest  confess  that  it  costs  them  severe  effort  to  discipline 
their  minds  into  the  habit  of  constantly  realizing  Him.  When 
we  do  think  of  Him,  it  is  with  a  painful  sense  of  a  disharmony 
between  what  is  in  us  and  what  is  in  Him.  We  cannot  remain, 
even  for  a  few  minutes,  in  His  presence  v/ithout  the  sense  in 
greater  or  less  degree,  that  His  thoughts  are  not  our  thoughts, 
nor  His  ways  our  ways.  With  Jesus  it  was  not  so.  He 
realized  God  always.  He  never  spent  an  hour,  He  never  did 
an  action,  without  direct  reference  to  Him.  God  was  about 
Him  like  the  atmosphere  He  breathed,  or  the  sunlight  in  which 
He  walked.  His  thoughts  were  God's  thoughts;  His  desires 
were  never  in  the  least  different  from  God's ;  His  purpose.  He 
was  perfectly  sure,  was  God's  purpose  for  Him.  How  did  He 
attain  this  absolute  harmony  with  God?  To  a  large  extent 
it  must  be  attributed  to  the  perfect  harmony  of  His  nature 
within  itself,  yet  in  some  measure  He  got  it  by  the  same 
means  by  which  we  laboriously  seek  it, — by  the  study  of  God's 
thoughts  and  purposes  in  His  Word,  which,  from  His  childhood, 


THE  YEAR  OF  PUBLIC  FAVOUR,  8  I 

was  His  constant  delight  ;  by  cultivating  all  His  life  long  the 
habit  of  prayer,  for  which  He  found  time  even  when  He  had  not 
time  to  eat ;  and  by  patiently  resisting  temptations  to  entertain 
thoughts  and  purposes  of  His  own  different  from  God's.  This  it 
was  which  gave  Him  such  faith  and  fearlessness  in  His  work ; 
He  knew  that  the  call  to  do  it  had  come  from  God,  and  that  He 
was  immortal  till  it  was  done.  This  was  what  made  Him,  with 
all  His  self-consciousness  and  originality,  the  pattern  of  meek- 
ness and  submission;  for  He  was  for  ever  bringing  every  thought 
and  wish  into  obedience  to  His  Father's  will.  This  was  the 
secret  of  the  peace  and  majestic  calmness  which  imparted  such 
a  grandeur  to  His  demeanour  in  the  most  trying  hours  of  life. 
He  knew  that  the  worst  that  could  happen  to  Him  was  His 
Father's  will  for  Him ;  and  this  was  enough.  He  had  ever  at 
hand  a  retreat  of  perfect  rest,  silence,  and  sunshine,  into  which 
He  could  retire  from  the  clamour  and  confusion  around  Him, 
This  was  the  great  secret  He  bequeathed  to  His  followers,  when 
He  said  to  them  at  parting,  *  Peace  I  leave  with  you;  My  peace  I 
give  unto  you.' 

114.  The  Sinlessness  of  Jesus  has  been  often  dwelt  on  as 
the  crowning  attribute  of  His  character.  The  Scriptures,  which 
so  frankly  record  the  errors  of  their  very  greatest  heroes, 
such  as  Abraham  and  Moses,  have  no  sins  of  His  to  record. 
There  is  no  more  prominent  characteristic  of  the  saints  of 
antiquity  than  their  penitence  :  the  more  supremely  saintly 
they  were,  the  more  abundant  and  bitter  were  their  tears 
and  lamentations  over  their  sinfulness.  But  although  it  is 
acknowledged  by  all  that  Jesus  was  the  supreme  religious  figure 
of  history.  He  never  exhibited  this  characteristic  of  saintliness  ; 
He  confessed  no  sin.  Must  it  not  have  been  because  He  had 
no  sin  to  confess  ?  Yet  the  idea  of  sinlessness  is  too  negative  to 
express  the  perfection  of  His  character.  He  was  sinless  ;  but 
He  was  so  because  He  was  absolutely  full  of  love.  Sin  against 
God  is  merely  the  expression  of  lack  of  love  to  God,  and  sin 
against  man  of  lack  of  love  to  man.      A  being  quite  full   of 


82  THE   LIFE  OF  JESUS   CHRIST. 

love  to  both  God  and  man  cannot  possibly  sin  against  either 
This  fulness  of  love  to  His  Father  and  His  fellow-men,  ruling 
every  expression  of  His  being,  constituted  the  perfection  of  His 
character. 

115.  To  the  impression  produced  on  them  by  their  long-con- 
tinued contact  with  their  Master  the  Twelve  owed  all  they 
became.  We  cannot  trace  with  any  fulness  at  what  time  they 
began  to  realize  the  central  truth  of  the  Christianity  they  were 
afterwards  to  publish  to  the  world,  that  behind  the  tenderness 
and  majesty  of  this  human  character  there  was  in  Him  some- 
thing still  more  august,  or  by  what  stages  their  impressions 
ripened  to  the  full  conviction  that  in  Him  perfect  manhood  was 
in  union  with  perfect  Deity.  This  was  the  goal  of  all  the  revela- 
tions of  Himself  which  He  made  to  them.  But  the  breakdown 
of  their  faith  at  His  death  shows  how  immature  up  till  that 
time  must  have  been  their  convictions  in  regard  to  His  person- 
aUty,  however  worthily  they  were  able,  in  certain  happy  hours, 
to  express  their  faith  in  Him.  It  was  the  experience  of  the 
Resurrection  and  Ascension  which  gave  to  the  fluid  impressions, 
which  had  long  been  accumulating  in  their  minds,  the  touch 
by  which  they  were  made  to  crystallize  into  the  immovable 
conviction,  that  in  Him  with  whom  it  had  been  vouchsafed 
to  them  to  associate  so  intimately,  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE  YEAR  OF  OPPOSITION. 

Paragraphs  116-118.  The  Change  of  Sentiment  towards  Him. 

119-135.  The  Causes  OF  Opposition. 

I19-131.  Opposition  of  the  Influential  Classes. 
119.  The  Sadducees. 

120-130.  The  Pharisees'  Reasons  for  opposing  Him. 
122,  123.  Their  Preconceptions;  124.  His  Lowly 
Origin;  125.  His  Followers  ;  126.  His  Dis- 
regard of  Traditions  ;  127.  The  Sabbath  ; 
128,  129.  Imputations  of  Blasphemy  and 
Alliance  with  the  Evil  One  ;  130.  Progress 
of  their  Opposition. 

131.  Herod. 

132-135.  Alienation  of  the  Common  People. 

132.  Popular  Opinions  of  Him  ;  133.  Effect  of  the 
Feeding  of  the  Five  Thousand  ;  134.  Refusal 
of  Jesus  to  be  their  King. 

136-143.  The  Changed  Aspect  of  His  Ministry. 

136-138.  The  Sifting  of  the  Disciples. 

137.  Wanderings  with  them  in  Remote  Parts,  their 
Great  Confession  ;  138,  Prediction  of  His  Suf- 
ferings, their  Blindness. 
139-142.  His  Own  Thoughts  and  Feelings  at  this  Period. 
140.  Prayerfulness  ;  141.  The  Transfiguration;  142. 
Departure  from  Galilee  and  Journey  to  Jeru- 
salem. 
J43.  The  Sanhedrim  resolves  on  His  Death. 


CHAPTER    V. 


THE    VEAR    OF   OPPOSITION. 


ii6.  For  a  whole  year  Jesus  pursued  His  work  in  Galilee  with 
incessant  energy,  moving  among  the  pitiable  crowds  that  solicited 
His  miraculous  help,  and  seizing  every  opportunity  of  pouring 
His  words  of  grace  and  trulli  into  the  ears  of  the  multitude  or 
of  the  solitary  anxious  inquirer.  In  hundreds  of  homes,  to  whose 
inmates  He  had  restored  health  and  joy.  His  name  must  have 
become  a  household  word  ;  in  thousands  of  minds,  whose  depths 
His  preaching  had  stirred,  He  must  have  been  cherished  with 
gratitude  and  love.  Wider  and  wider  rang  the  echoes  of  His 
fame.  For  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  all  Galilee  were  to  become 
His  disciples,  and  as  if  the  movement  so  set  agoing  might  easily 
roll  southward,  overbearing  all  opposition,  and  enveloping  the 
whole  land  in  an  enthusiasm  of  love  for  the  Healer  and  of 
obedience  to  the  Teacher. 

117.  But  the  twelve  months  had  scarcely  passed  when  it 
became  sadly  evident  that  this  was  not  to  be.  The  Galilean 
mind  turned  out  to  be  stony  ground,  where  the  seed  of  the  king- 
dom rushed  quickly  up,  but  just  as  quickly  withered  away.  The 
change  was  sudden  and  complete,  and  at  once  altered  all  the 
features  of  the  life  of  Jesus.  He  lingered  in  Galilee  for  six 
months  longer ;  but  these  months  were  very  unlike  the  first 
twelve.  The  voices  that  rose  around  Him  were  no  longer  the 
ringing  shouts  of  gratitude  and  applause,  but  voices  of  opposi- 

85 


86  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

tion,  bitter  and  blasphemous.  He  was  no  longer  to  be  seen 
moving  from  one  populous  place  to  another  in  the  heart  of  the 
country,  welcomed  everywhere  by  those  who  waited  to  experience 
or  to  see  His  miracles,  and  followed  by  thousands  eager  not  to 
lose  a  word  of  His  discourses.  He  was  a  fugitive,  seeking  the 
most  distant  and  outlandish  places,  and  accompanied  only  by  a 
handful  of  followers.  At  the  six  months'  end  He  left  Galilee  for 
ever,  but  not,  as  might  at  one  time  have  been  anticipated,  borne 
aloft  on  the  wave  ot  public  acknowledgment,  to  make  an  easy 
conquest  of  the  hearts  of  the  southern  part  of  the  country,  and 
take  victorious  possession  of  a  Jerusalem  unable  to  resist  the 
unanimous  voice  of  the  people.  He  did  indeed  labour  for  six 
months  more  in  the  southern  part  of  the  land — in  Judaea  and 
Per^ea  ;  nor  were  there  awanting,  where  His  miracles  were  seen 
for  the  first  time,  the  same  signs  of  public  enthusiasm  as  had 
greeted  Him  in  the  first  months  of  joy  in  Galilee  ;  but  the  most 
which  He  effected  was  to  add  a  few  to  the  company  of  His 
faithful  disciples.  He  did  indeed,  from  the  day  He  left  Galilee, 
set  His  face  stedfastly  towards  Jerusalem ;  and  the  six  months 
He  spent  in  Peraea  and  Judsea  may  be  regarded  as  occupied  with 
a  slow  journey  thither  ;  but  the  journey  was  begun  in  the  full 
assurance,  which  He  openly  expressed  to  the  disciples,  that  in 
the  capital  He  was  to  receive  no  triumph  over  enthusiastic 
hearts  and  minds  convinced,  but  meet  with  a  final  national 
rejection,  and  be  killed  instead  of  crowned. 

ii8.  We  must  trace  the  causes  and  the  progress  of  this  change 
in  the  sentiment  of  the  Galileans,  and  this  sad  turn  in  the  career 
of  Jesus. 

119.  From  the  very  first  the  learned  and  influential  classes 
had  taken  up  an  attitude  of  opposition  to  Him.  The  more 
worldly  sections  of  them.,  indeed, — the  Sadducees  and  Herodians, 
— for  a  long  time  paid  little  attention  to  Him.  They  had  their 
own  affairs  to  mind — their  wealth,  their  court  influence,  their 
amusements.     They  cared  little  for  a  religious  movement  going 


THE  YEAR  OF  OPPOSITION.  87 

on  among  the  lower  orders.  The  public  rumour  that  one  pro- 
fessing to  be  the  Messiah  had  appeared  did  not  ex-cite  their 
interest,  for  they  did  not  share  the  popular  expectations  on  the 
subject.  They  said  to  each  other  that  this  was  only  one  more 
of  the  pretenders  whom  the  peculiar  ideas  of  the  populace  were 
sure  to  raise  up  from  time  to  time.  It  was  only  when  the  move- 
ment seemed  to  them  to  be  threatening  to  lead  to  a  political 
revolt,  which  would  bring  down  the  iron  hand  of  their  Roman 
masters  on  the  country,  afford  the  Procurator  an  excuse  for  new 
extortions,  and  imperil  their  property  and  comforts,  that  they 
roused  themselves  to  pay  any  attention  to  Him. 

120.  Very  different  was  it,  however,  with  the  more  religious 
sections  of  the  upper  class — the  Pharisees  and  scribes.  They 
took  the  deepest  interest  in  all  ecclesiastical  and  religious  pheno- 
mena. A  movement  of  a  religious  kind  among  the  populace 
excited  their  eager  attention,  for  they  themselves  aimed  at  popu- 
lar influence.  A  new  voice  with  the  ring  of  prophecy  in  it,  or 
the  promulgation  of  any  new  doctrine  or  tenet,  caught  their  eai 
at  once.  But,  above  all,  any  one  putting  himself  forward  as  the 
JMessiah  produced  the  utmost  ferment  among  them  ;  for  they 
ardently  cherished  Messianic  hopes,  and  were  at  the  time  smart- 
ing keenly  under  the  foreign  domination.  In  relation  to  the 
rest  of  the  community,  they  corresponded  to  our  clergy  and  lead- 
ing religious  laymen,  and  probably  formed  about  the  same  pro- 
portion of  the  population,  and  exercised  at  least  as  great  an 
influence  as  these  do  among  us.  It  has  been  estimated  that  they 
may  have  numbered  about  six  thousand.  They  passed  for  the 
best  persons  in  the  country,  the  conservators  of  respectability 
and  orthodoxy  ;  and  the  masses  looked  up  to  them  as  those 
who  had  the  right  to  judge  and  determine  in  all  religious 
matters. 

121.  They  cannot  be  accused  of  having  neglected  Jesus.  They 
turned  their  earnest  attention  to  Him  from  the  first.  They 
followed  Him  step  by  step.  They  discussed  His  doctrines  and 
His   claims,   and   made   up  their   minds.     Their   decision   was 


88  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

adverse,  and  they  followed  it  up  with  acts,  never  becoming  remisa 
in  their  activity  for  an  hour. 

122.  This  is  perhaps  the  most  solemn  and  appalling  circum- 
stance in  the  whole  tragedy  of  the  life  of  Christ,  that  the  men 
who  rejected,  hunted  down,  and  murdered  Him,  were  those 
reputed  the  best  in  the  nation,  its  teachers  and  examples,  the 
zealous  conservators  of  the  Bible  and  the  traditions  of  the  past, — 
men  who  were  eagerly  waiting  for  the  Messiah,  who  judged  Jesus, 
as  they  believed,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  and  thought  they 
were  obeying  the  dictates  of  conscience  and  doing  God  service 
when  they  treated  Him  as  they  did.  There  cannot  fail  some- 
times to  sweep  across  the  mind  of  a  reader  of  the  Gospels  a  strong 
feeling  of  pity  for  them,  and  a  kind  of  sympathy  with  them. 
Jesus  was  so  unlike  the  Messiah  whom  they  were  looking  for  and 
their  fathers  had  taught  them  to  expect  !  He  so  completely 
traversed  their  prejudices  and  maxims,  and  dishonoured  so  many 
things  which  they  had  been  taught  to  regard  as  sacred  I  They  may 
surely  be  pitied  ;  there  never  was  a  crime  like  their  crime,  and 
there  was  never  punishment  hke  their  punishment.  There  is  the 
same  sadness  about  the  fate  of  those  who  are  thrown  upon  any 
great  crisis  of  the  world's  history,  and,  not  understanding  the  signs 
of  the  times,  make  fatal  mistakes  ;  as  those  did,  for  example,  who 
at  the  Reformation  were  unable  to  go  forth  and  join  the  march  of 
Providence. 

123.  Yet,  at  bottom,  what  was  their  case?  It  was  just  this, 
that  they  were  so  blinded  with  sin  that  they  could  not  discern 
the  light.  Their  views  of  the  Messiah  had  been  distorted  by 
centuries  of  worldliness  and  unspirituality,  of  which  they  were  the 
like-minded  heirs.  They  thought  Jesus  a  sinner,  because  He  did 
not  conform  to  ordinances  which  they  and  their  fathers  had 
profanely  added  to  those  of  God's  Word,  and  because  their  con- 
ception of  a  good  man,  to  which  He  did  not  answer,  was  utterly 
false.  Jesus  supplied  them  with  evidence  enough,  but  He  could 
not  give  them  eyes  to  see  it.  Tl^cre  is  a  something  at  the 
bottom  of  hearts  that  are  honest  and  u^iC,  which,  however  long 


THE  YEAR  OF  OPPOSITION.  89 

and  deeply  it  may  have  been  buried  under  prejudice  and  sin, 
leaps  up  with  joy  and  desire  to  embrace  what  is  true,  what  is 
reverend,  what  is  pure  and  great,  when  it  draws  near.  But 
nothing  of  the  kind  was  found  in  them  ;  their  hearts  were  seared, 
hardened,  and  dead.  They  brought  their  stock  rules  and  arbi- 
trary standards  to  judge  Him  by,  and  were  never  shaken  by  His 
greatness  from  the  fatal  attitude  of  criticism.  He  brought  truth 
near  them,  but  they  had  not  the  truth-loving  ear  to  recognise 
the  enchanting  sound.  He  brought  the  whitest  purity,  such  as 
archangels  would  have  veiled  their  faces  at,  near  them,  but  they 
were  not  overawed.  He  brought  near  them  the  very  face  0 
mercy  and  heavenly  love,  but  their  dim  eyes  made  no  response. 
We  may  indeed  pity  the  conduct  of  such  men  as  an  appalling 
misfortune,  but  it  is  better  to  fear  and  tremble  at  it  as  appalling 
guilt.  The  more  utterly  wicked  men  become,  the  more  inevit- 
able it  is  that  they  should  sin  ;  the  vaster  the  mass  of  a  nation's 
sin  becomes,  as  it  rolls  down  through  the  centuries,  the  more 
inevitable  does  some  awful  national  crime  become.  But  when  the 
inevitable  takes  place,  it  is  an  object  not  for  pity  only,  but  also 
for  holy  and  jealous  wrath. 

124.  One  thing  about  Jesus  which  from  the  first  excited  their 
opposition  to  Him  was  the  humbleness  of  His  origin.  Their  eyes 
were  dazzled  with  the  ordinary  prejudices  of  the  rich  and  the 
learned,  and  could  not  discern  the  grandeur  of  the  soul  apart  from 
the  accidents  of  position  and  culture.  He  was  a  son  of  the 
people  ;  He  had  been  a  carpenter  ;  they  believed  He  had  been 
born  in  rude  and  wicked  Galilee  ;  He  had  not  passed  through 
the  schools  of  Jerusalem  or  drunk  at  the  acknowledged  wells 
of  wisdom  there.  They  thought  that  a  prophet,  and  above  all 
the  Messiah,  should  have  been  born  in  Judtca,  reared  at  Jeru- 
salem in  the  centre  of  culture  and  religion,  and  allied  with  all 
that  was  distinguished  and  influential  in  the  nation. 

125.  For  the  same  reason  they  were  offended  with  the  followers 
He  chose  and  the  company  He  kept.  His  chosen  organs  were 
not  selected  from  among  themselves,  the  wise  and  high-born,  but 


90  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

were  uneducated  laymen,  poor  fishermen.  Nay,  one  of  them 
was  a  publican.  Nothing  that  Jesus  did,  perhaps,  gave  greater 
offence  than  the  choice  of  Matthew,  the  tax-gatherer,  to  be  an 
apostle.  The  tax-gatherers,  as  servants  of  the  alien  power,  were 
hated  by  all  who  were  patriotic  and  respectable,  at  once  for  their 
trade,  their  extortions,  and  their  character.  How  could  Jesus 
hope  that  respectable  and  learned  men  should  enter  a  circle  such 
as  that  which  He  had  formed  about  Himself?  Besides,  He 
mingled  freely  with  the  lowest  class  of  the  population — with 
pubHcans,  harlots,  and  sinners.  In  Christian  times  we  have 
learned  to  love  Him  for  this  more  than  anything  else.  We  easily 
see  that,  if  He  really  was  the  Saviour  from  sin.  He  could  not 
have  been  found  in  more  suitable  company  than  among  those 
who  needed  salvation  most.  We  know  now  how  He  could 
believe  that  many  of  the  lost  were  more  the  victims  of  circum- 
stances than  sinners  by  choice,  and  that,  ii  He  drew  the  magnet 
across  the  top  of  the  rubbish,  it  would  attract  to  itselt  many  a 
piece  of  precious  metal.  The  purest-minded  and  highest-born 
have  since  learned  to  follow  His  footsteps  down  into  the  purlieus 
of  squalor  and  vice  to  seek  and  save  the  lost.  But  no  such 
sentiment  had  up  till  His  time  been  born  into  the  world.  The 
mass  of  sinners  outside  the  pale  of  respectability  were  despised 
and  hated  as  the  enemies  of  society,  and  no  efforts  were  made 
to  save  them.  On  the  contrary,  all  who  aimed  at  religious  dis- 
tinction avoided  their  very  touch  as  a  defilement.  Simon  the 
Pharisee,  when  he  was  entertaining  Jesus,  never  doubted  that,  if 
He  had  been  a  prophet  and  known  who  the  woman  was  who  was 
touching  Him,  He  would  have  driven  her  off.  Such  was  the 
sentiment  of  the  time.  Yet  when  Jesus  brought  into  the  world 
the  new  sentiment,  and  showed  them  the  divine  face  of  mercy, 
they  ought  to  have  recognised  it.  If  their  hearts  had  not  been 
utterly  hard  and  cruel,  they  would  have  leapt  up  to  welcome  this 
revelation  of  a  diviner  humanity.  The  sight  of  sinners  forsaking 
their  evil  ways,  of  wicked  women  sobbing  for  their  lost  lives,  and 
extortioners  like  Zaccheus  becoming  earnest  and  generous,  ought 


THE  YEAR  OF  OPPOSITION.  gi 

to  liave  delighted  them.  But  it  did  not,  and  they  only  hated 
Jesus  for  His  compassion,  calling  Him  a  friend  of  publicans  and 
sinners. 

126.  A  third  and  very  serious  ground  of  their  opposition  was, 
that  He  did  not  Himself  practise,  nor  encourage  His  disciples  to 

\  practise,  many  ritual  observances,  such  as  fasts,  punctilious 
washing  of  the  hands  before  meals,  and  so  forth,  which  were  then 
considered  the  marks  of  a  saintly  man.  It  has  been  already 
explained  how  these  practices  arose.  They  had  been  invented 
in  an  earnest  but  mechanical  age  in  order  to  emphasize  the  pecu- 
liarities of  Jewish  character,  and  keep  up  the  separation  of  the 
Jews  from  other  nations.  The  original  intention  was  good,  but 
the  result  was  deplorable.  It  was  soon  forgotten  that  they  were 
merely  human  inventions  ;  they  were  supposed  to  be  binding  by 
divine  sanction  ;  and  they  were  multiplied,  till  they  regulated 
every  hour  of  the  day  and  every  action  of  life.  They  were  made 
the  substitutes  for  real  piety  and  morality  by  the  majority;  and 
to  tender  consciences  they  were  an  intolerable  burden,  for  it  was 
scarcely  possible  to  move  a  step  or  lift  a  finger  without  the 
danger  of  sinning  against  one  or  other  of  them.  But  no  one 
doubted  their  authority,  and  the  careful  observance  of  them  was 
reputed  the  badge  of  a  godly  life.  Jesus  regarded  them  as  the 
great  evil  of  the  time.  He  therefore  neglected  them,  and  en- 
couraged others  to  do  so;  not,  however,  without  at  the  same  time 
leading  them  back  to  the  great  principles  of  judgment,  mercy, 
and  faith,  and  making  them  feel  the  majesty  of  the  conscience 
and  the  depth  and  spirituality  of  the  law.  But  the  result  was, 
that  He  was  looked  upon  as  both  an  ungodly  man  Himself,  and  a 
deceiver  of  the  people. 

127.  It  was   especially   in   regard   to    the    Sabbath   that   this 
"'difference  between   Him  and  the  religious  teachers  came  out. 

On  this  field  their  inventions  of  restrictions  and  arbitrary  rules 
had  run  into  the  most  portentous  extravagance,  till  they  had 
changed  the  day  of  rest,  joy,  and  blessing  into  an  intolerable 
burden.     He  was  in  the  habit  of  performing  His  cures  on  the 


9*  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Sabbath.  They  thought  such  work  a  breach  of  the  command. 
He  exposed  the  wrongness  of  their  objections  again  and  again, 
by  explaining  the  nature  of  the  institution  itself  as  'made  for 
man/  by  reference  to  the  practice  of  ancient  saints,  and  even  by 
the  analogy  of  some  of  their  own  practices  on  the  holy  day.  But 
they  were  not  convinced  ;  and,  as  He  continued  His  practice  in 
spite  of  their  objections,  this  remained  a  standing  and  bitter 
ground  of  their  hate. 

128.  It  will  be  easily  understood  that,  having  arrived  at  these 
conclusions  on  such  low  grounds,  they  were  utterly  disinclined  to 
listen  to  Him  when  He  put  forward  His  higher  claims — when  He 
announced  Himself  as  the  Messiah,  professed  to  forgive  sins, 
and  threw  out  intimations  of  His  high  relation  to  God.  Having 
concluded  that  He  was  an  impostor  and  deceiver,  they  regarded 
such  assertions  as  hideous  blasphemies,  and  could  not  help  wish- 
ing to  stop  the  mouth  which  uttered  them. 

129.  It  may  be  wondered  at,  that  they  were  not  convinced  by 
His  miracles.  If  He  really  performed  the  numerous  and  stupen- 
dous miracles  which  are  recorded  of  Him,  how  could  they  resist 
such  evidence  of  His  divine  mission  ?  The  debate  held  with  the 
authorities  by  the  tough  reasoner  whom  Jesus  cured  of  blindness, 
and  whose  case  is  recorded  in  the  ninth  chapter  of  John,  shows 
how  sorely  they  may  sometimes  have  been  pressed  with  such 
reasoning.  But  they  had  satisfied  themselves  with  an  audacious 
reply  to  it.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  among  the  Jews  miracles 
had  never  been  looked  upon  as  conclusive  proofs  of  a  divine 
mission.  They  might  be  wrought  by  false  as  well  as  true 
prophets.  They  might  be  traceable  to  diabolical  instead  of 
divine  agency.  Whether  they  were  so  or  not,  was  to  be  deter- 
mined on  other  grounds.  On  these  other  grounds  they  had  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  He  had  not  been  sent  from  God  ;  and  so 
they  attributed  His  miracles  to  an  alliance  with  the  powers  of 
darkness.  Jesus  met  this  blasphemous  construction  with  the 
utmost  force  of  holy  indignation  and  conclusive  argument ;  but 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  it  was  a  position  in  which  minds  like  those 


THE  YEAR  OF  OPPOSITION.  93 

of  His  opponents  might  entrench  themselves  with  the  sense  of 
much  security. 

130.  Very  early  they  had  formed  their  adverse  judgment  of 
Him,  and  they  never  changed  it.  Even  during  His  first  year  in 
Judasa  they  had  pretty  well  decided  against  Him.  When  the 
news  of  His  success  in  Galilee  spread,  it  filled  them  with  con- 
sternation, and  they  sent  deputations  from  Jerusalem  to  act  in 
concert  with  their  local  adherents  in  opposing  Him.  Even 
during  His  year  of  joy  He  clashed  with  them  again  and  again. 
At  first  He  treated  them  with  consideration  and  appealed  to 
their  reason  and  heart.  But  He  soon  saw  that  this  was  hopeless 
and  accepted  their  opposition  as  inevitable.  He  exposed  the 
hollo wness  of  their  pretensions  to  His  audiences  and  warned 
His  disciples  against  them.  Meanwhile  they  did  everything  to 
poison  the  public  mind  against  Him.  They  succeeded  only  too 
well.  When,  at  the  year's  end,  the  tide  of  His  popularity  began 
to  recede,  they  pressed  their  advantage,  assailing  Him  more  and 
more  boldly. 

131.  They  even  succeeded  thus  early  in  arousing  the  cold 
minds  of  the  Sadducees  and  Herodians  against  Him,  no  doubt 
by  persuading  them  that  He  was  fomenting  a  popular  revolt, 
which  would  endanger  the  throne  of  their  master  Herod,  who 
reigned  over  Galilee.  That  mean  and  characterless  prince  him- 
self also  became  His  persecutor.  He  had  other  reasons  to  dread 
Him  besides  those  suggested  by  his  courtiers.  About  this  very 
time  he  had  murdered  John  the  Baptist.  It  was  one  of  the 
meanest  and  foulest  crimes  recorded  in  history,  an  awful  instance 
of  the  way  in  which  sin  leads  to  sin,  and  of  the  malicious  perse- 
verance with  which  a  wicked  woman  will  compass  her  revenge. 
Soon  after  it  was  committed,  his  courtiers  came  to  tell  him  of  the 
supposed  political  designs  of  Jesus.  But  when  he  heard  of  the 
new  prophet,  an  awful  thought  thrilled  through  his  guilty  con- 
science. 'It  is  John  the  Baptist,'  he  cried,  'whom  I  beheaded;  he 
is  risen  from  the  dead.'    Yet  he  desired  to  see  Him,  his  curiosity 


94  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

getting  the  better  of  his  terror.  It  was  the  desire  of  the  lion  to 
see  the  lamb.  Jesus  never  responded  to  his  invitation.  But  just 
on  that  account  Herod  may  have  been  the  more  willing  to  listen 
to  the  suggestions  of  his  courtiers  that  he  should  arrest  Him  as 
a  dangerous  person.  It  was  not  long  before  he  was  seeking  to 
kill  Him.  Jesus  had  to  keep  out  of  his  way,  and  no  doubt 
this  helped  along  with  more  important  things  to  change  the 
character  of  His  life  in  Galilee  during  the  last  six  months  of  His 
stay  there. 

132.  It  had  seemed  for  a  time  as  if  His  hold  on  the  mind  and 
the  heart  oi  the  common  people  might  become  so  strong  as  to 
carry  irresistibly  a  national  recognition.  Many  a  movement, 
trowned  upon  at  first  by  authorities  and  dignitaries,  has,  by  com- 
mitting itself  to  the  lower  classes  and  securing  their  enthusiastic 
acknowledgment,  risen  to  take  possession  of  the  upper  classes 
and  carry  the  centres  of  influence.  There  is  a  certain  point 
of  national  consent  at  which  any  movement  which  reaches  it 
becomes  like  a  flood,  which  no  amount  of  prejudice  or  official 
dislike  can  successfully  oppose.  Jesus  gave  Himself  to  the 
common  people  in  Galilee,  and  they  gave  Him  in  return  their 
love  and  admiration.  Instead  of  hating  Him  like  the  Pharisees 
and  scribes,  and  calling  Him  a  glutton  and  a  wine-bibber,  they 
believed  Him  a  prophet;  they  compared  Him  with  the  very 
greatest  figures  of  the  past,  and  many,  according  as  they  were 
more  struck  with  the  sublime  or  with  the  melting  side  of  His 
teaching,  said  He  was  Isaiah  or  Jeremiah  risen  from  the  dead. 
It  was  a  common  idea  of  the  time  that  the  coming  of  the  Messiah 
was  to  be  preceded  by  the  rising  again  of  some  prophet.  The  one 
most  commonly  thought  of  was  Elijah.  Accordingly  some  took 
Jesus  for  Elijah.  But  it  was  only  a  precursor  of  the  Messiah  they 
supposed  Him  to  be,  not  the  Messiah  Himself.  He  was  not  at  all 
like  their  conception  of  the  coming  Deliverer,  which  was  of  the 
most  grossly  material  kind.  Now  and  then,  indeed,  after  He  had 
wrought  some  unusually  striking  miracle,  there  might  be  raised 


THE  YEAR  OF  OPPOSITION.  95 

a  single  voice  or  a  few  voices,  suggesting,  Is  this  not  He?  But, 
wonderful  as  were  His  deeds  and  His  words,  yet  the  whole  aspect 
of  His  life  was  so  unlike  their  preconceptions,  that  the  truth  failed 
to  suggest  itself  forcibly  and  universally  to  their  minds. 

133.  At  last,  however,  the  decisive  hour  seemed  to  have 
arrived.  It  was  just  at  that  great  turning-point  to  which  allusion 
has  frequently  been  made  —  the  end  of  the  twelve  months  in 
Galilee.  Jesus  had  heard  of  the  Baptist's  death,  and  immediately 
hurried  away  into  a  desert  place  with  His  disciples,  to  brood  and 
talk  over  the  tragic  event.  He  sailed  to  the  eastern  side  of  the 
lake,  and,  landing  on  the  grassy  plain  of  Bethsaida,  went  up  to  a 
hill  with  the  Twelve.  But  soon  at  its  foot  there  gathered  an 
immense  multitude  to  hear  and  see  Him.  They  had  found  out 
where  He  was,  and  gathered  to  Him  from  every  quarter.  Ever 
ready  to  sacrifice  Himself  for  others,  He  descended  to  address 
and  heal  them.  The  evening  came  on,  as  His  discourse  pro- 
longed itself,  when,  moved  with  a  great  access  of  compassion  for 
the  helpless  multitude.  He  wrought  the  stupendous  miracle  of 
feeding  the  five  thousand.  Its  effect  was  overwhelming.  They 
became  instantaneously  convinced  that  this  was  none  other  than 
the  Messiah,  and,  having  only  one  conception  of  what  this  meant, 
they  endeavoured  to  take  Him  by  force  and  make  Him  a  king  ; 
that  is,  to  force  Him  to  become  the  leader  of  a  Messianic  revolt, 
by  which  they  might  wrest  the  throne  from  Ctesar  and  the 
princelings  he  had  set  up  over  the  different  provinces. 

134.  It  seemed  the  crowning  hour  of  success.  But  to  Jesus 
Himself  it  was  an  hour  of  sad  and  bitter  shame.  This  was  all 
that  His  year's  work  had  come  to  I  This  was  the  conception  they 
yet  had  of  Him !  And  they  were  to  determine  the  course  of  His 
future  action,  instead  of  humbly  asking  what  He  would  have  them 
to  do  !  He  accepted  it  as  the  decisive  indication  of  the  effect  of 
His  work  in  Galilee.  He  saw  how  shallow  were  its  results. 
Galilee  had  judged  itself  unworthy  of  being  the  centre  from  which 
His  kingdom  might  extend  itself  to  the  rest  of  the  land.  He 
fled  from  their  carnal  desires,  and  the  very  next  day,  meeting- 


96  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

them  again  at  Capernaum,  He  told  them  how  much  they  had 
been  mistaken  in  Him;  they  were  looking  for  a  Bread-king,  who 
would  give  them  idleness  and  plenty,  mountains  of  loaves,  rivers 
of  milk,  every  comfort  without  labour.  What  He  had  to  give  was 
the  bread  of  eternal  life. 

135.  His  discourse  was  like  a  stream  of  cold  water  directed 
upon  the  fiery  enthusiasm  of  the  crowd.  From  that  hour  His 
cause  in  Galilee  was  doomed ;  '  many  of  His  disciples  went  back 
and  walked  no  more  with  Him.'  It  was  what  He  intended.  It 
was  Himself  who  struck  the  fatal  blow  at  His  popularity.  He 
resolved  to  devote  Himself  thenceforward  to  the  few  who  really 
understood  Him  and  were  capable  of  being  the  adherents  of  a 
spiritual  enterprise. 

136.  The  Changed  Aspect  of  His  Ministry, —Yet,  although  the 
people  of  Galilee  at  large  had  shown  themselves  unworthy  of 
Him,  there  was  a  considerable  remnant  that  proved  true.  At 
the  centre  of  it  were  the  apostles  ;  but  there  were  also  others,  to 
the  number  probably  of  several  hundreds.  These  now  became 
the  objects  of  His  special  care.  He  had  saved  them  as  brands 
plucked  from  the  burning,  when  Galilee  as  a  whole  deserted 
Him.  For  them  it  must  have  been  a  time  of  crucial  trial. 
Their  views  were  to  a  large  extent  those  of  the  populace.  They 
also  expected  a  Messiah  of  worldly  splendour.  They  had 
indeed  learned  to  include  deeper  and  more  spiritual  elements  in 
their  conception,  but,  along  with  these,  it  still  contained  the 
traditional  and  material  ones.  It  must  have  been  a  painful 
mystery  to  them  that  Jesus  should  so  long  delay  the  assumption 
of  the  crown.  So  painful  had  this  been  to  the  Baptist  in  his 
lonely  prison,  that  he  began  to  doubt  whether  the  vision  he  had 
seen  on  the  bank  of  the  Jordan  and  the  great  convictions  of  his 
life  had  not  been  delusions,  and  sent  to  ask  Jesus  if  He  really 
was  the  Christ.  The  Baptist's  death  must  have  been  an  awful 
shock  to  them.  If  Jesus  was  the  Mighty  One  they  thought 
Him,  how  could  He  allow  His  friend  to  come  to  such  an  end? 


THE  YEAR  OF  OPPOSITION.  97 

Still  they  held  on  to  Him.  They  showed  what  it  was  which 
kept  them  by  their  answer  to  Him,  when,  after  the  dispersion 
which  followed  the  discourse  at  Capernaum,  He  put  to  them  the 
sad  question,  'Will  ye  also  go  away?'  They  replied,  'Lord, 
to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life.' 
Their  opinions  were  not  clear  ;  they  were  in  a  mist  of  per- 
plexities ;  but  they  knew  that  from  Him  they  were  getting 
eternal  life.  This  held  them  close  to  Him,  and  made  them 
willing  to  wait  till  He  should  make  things  clear. 

137.  During  the  last  six  months  He  spent  in  Galilee,  He  aban- 
doned to  a  large  extent  His  old  work  of  preaching  and  miracle- 
working,  and  devoted  Himself  to  the  instruction  of  these  adher- 
ents. He  made  long  circuits  with  them  in  the  most  distant  parts 
of  the  province,  avoiding  publicity  as  much  as  possible.  Thus 
we  find  him  at  Tyre  and  Sidon,  far  to  the  north-west;  at 
Ctcsarea-Philippi,  on  the  far  north-east ;  and  in  Decapolis,  to 
the  south  and  east  of  the  lake.  These  journeys,  or  rather  flights, 
were  due  partly  to  the  bitter  opposition  of  the  Pharisees,  partly 
to  fear  of  Herod,  but  chiefly  to  the  desire  to  be  alone  with  His 
disciples.  The  precious  result  of  them  was  seen  in  an  incident 
which  happened  at  Caesarea-Philippi.  Jesus  began  to  ask  His 
disciples  what  were  the  popular  views  about  Himself,  and  they 
told  Him  the  various  conjectures  which  were  flying  about, — that 
He  was  a  prophet,  that  He  was  Elias,  that  He  was  John  the 
Baptist,  and  so  on.  '  Cut  whom  say  ye  that  I  am?'  He  asked  ; 
and  Peter  answered  for  them  all,  '  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of  the  living  God.'  This  was  the  deliberate  and  decisive  convic- 
tion by  which  they  were  determined  to  abide,  whatever  might 
come.  Jesus  received  the  confession  with  great  joy,  and  at  once 
recognised  in  those  who  had  made  it  the  nucleus  of  the  future 
Church,  which  was  to  be  built  on  the  truth  to  which  they  had 
given  expression. 

138.  But  this  attainment  only  prepared  them  for  a  new  trial  of 
faith.  From  that  time,  we  are  told,  He  began  to  inform  them 
of  His  approaching  sufferings  and  death.     These  now  stood  out 


98  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

clearly  before  His  own  mind  as  the  only  issue  of  His  career  to  be 
looked  for.  He  had  hinted  as  much  to  them  before,  but,  with 
that  delicate  and  loving  consideration  which  always  graduated 
His  teaching  to  their  capacity,  He  did  not  refer  to  it  often.  But 
now  they  were  in  some  degree  able  to  bear  it ;  and,  as  it  was 
inevitable  and  near  at  hand,  He  kept  insisting  on  it  constantly. 
But  they  themselves  tell  us  they  did  not  in  the  least  understand 
1 1  im.  In  common  with  all  their  countrymen,  they  expected  a  Mes- 
siah who  should  sit  on  the  throne  of  David,  and  of  whose  reign 
there  should  be  no  end.  They  believed  Jesus  was  this  Messiah  ; 
and  it  was  to  them  utterly  incomprehensible  that,  instead  of 
reigning.  He  should  be  killed  on  His  arrival  in  Jerusalem.  They 
listened  to  Him,  they  discussed  His  words  among  themselves, 
but  they  regarded  their  apparent  meaning  as  a  wild  impossibility. 
They  thought  He  was  only  using  one  of  the  parabolic  sayings  of 
which  He  was  so  fond,  His  real  meaning  being  that  the  present 
lowly  form  of  His  work  was  to  die  and  disappear,  and  His  cause 
rise,  as  it  were,  out  of  the  grave  in  a  glorious  and  triumphant 
shape.  He  endeavoured  to  undeceive  them,  going  more  and 
more  minutely  into  the  details  of  His  approaching  sufferings. 
But  their  minds  could  not  take  the  truth  in.  How  completely 
even  the  best  of  them  failed  to  do  so  is  shown  by  the  frequent 
wranglings  among  them  at  this  period  as  to  which  of  them 
should  in  the  approaching  kingdom  be  the  greatest,  and  by  the 
request  of  Salome  for  her  sons,  that  they  should  sit  the  one  on  the 
right  and  the  other  on  the  left  hand  in  His  kingdom.  "When  they 
left  Galilee  and  went  up  towards  Jerusalem,  it  was  with  the  con- 
viction that '  the  kingdom  of  God  should  immediately  appear,' — 
that  is,  that  Jesus,  on  arriving  in  the  capital,  would  throw  off  the 
guise  of  humiliation  He  had  hitherto  worn,  and,  overcoming 
all  opposition  by  some  forthputting  of  His  concealed  glory,  take 
His  place  on  the  throne  of  His  fathers. 

139.  What  were  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  Jesus  Himself 
during  ihis  )  ear  ?     To  Him  also  it  was  a  year  of  sore  trial.    Now 


THE  YEAR  OF  OPPOSITION.  99 

for  the  first  time  the  deep  lines  of  care  and  pain  were  traced  upon 
His  face.  During  the  twelvemonth  of  successful  work  in  Galilee, 
He  was  borne  up  with  the  joy  of  sustained  achievement.  But 
now  He  became,  in  the  truest  sense,  the  Man  of  Sorrows.  Behind 
Him  was  His  rejection  by  Galilee.  The  sorrow  which  He  felt  at 
seeing  the  ground  on  which  He  had  bestowed  so  much  labour 
turning  out  barren,  is  to  be  measured  only  by  the  greatness  of 
His  love  to  the  souls  He  sought  to  save,  and  the  depth  of  His 
devotion  to  His  work.  In  front  of  Him  was  His  rejection  at 
Jerusalem.  That  was  now  certain  ;  it  rose  up  and  stood  out 
constantly  and  unmistakeably,  meeting  His  eyes  as  often  as  He 
turned  them  to  the  future.  It  absorbed  His  thoughts.  It  was  a 
terrible  prospect ;  and,  now  that  it  drew  nigh,  it  sometimes  shook 
His  soul  with  a  conflict  of  feelings  which  we  scarcely  dare  to 
picture  to  ourselves. 

140.  He  was  very  much  in  prayer.  This  had  all  along  been 
His  delight  and  resource.  In  His  busiest  period,  when  He  was 
often  so  tired  with  the  labours  of  the  day  that  at  the  approach  of 
evening  He  was  ready  to  fling  Himself  down  in  utter  fatigue,  He 
would  nevertheless  escape  away  from  the  crowds  and  His  dis- 
ciples to  the  mountain-top,  and  spend  the  whole  night  in  lonely 
communion  with  His  Father.  He  nev^er  took  any  important  step 
without  such  a  night.  But  now  He  was  far  oftener  alone  than 
ever  before,  setting  forth  His  case  to  His  God  with  strong  crying 
and  tears. 

141.  His  prayers  received  a  splendid  answer  in  the  Transfigur- 
ation. That  glorious  scene  took  place  in  the  middle  of  the  year 
of  opposition,  just  before  He  quitted  Galilee  and  set  forth  on  the 
journey  of  doom.  It  was  intended  partly  for  the  sake  of  the 
three  disciples  who  accompanied  Him  to  the  mountain-top,  to 
strengthen  their  faith  and  make  them  fit  to  strengthen  their 
brethren.  But  it  was  chiefly  intended  for  Himself.  It  was  a 
great  gift  of  His  Father,  an  acknowledgment  ot  His  faithfulness 
up  to  this  point,  and  a  preparation  for  what  lay  before  Him, 
It  was  about  the  decease  He  was  to  accomplish  at  Jerusalem 


100  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

He  conversed  with  His  great  predecessors,  Moses  and  Elias, 
wlio  could  thoroughly  sympathize  with  Him,  and  whose  work 
His  death  was  to  fulfil. 

142.  Immediately  after  this  event  He  left  Galilee  and  went 
south.  He  spent  six  months  on  His  way  to  Jerusalem.  It  was 
part  of  His  mission  to  preach  the  kingdom  over  the  whole  land, 
and  He  did  so.  He  sent  seventy  of  His  disciples  on  before  Him 
to  prepare  the  villages  and  towns  to  receive  Him.  Again  in  this 
new  field  the  same  manifestations  as  Galilee  had  witnessed 
during  the  first  months  ot  His  labours  there  showed  themselves, — 
the  multitudes  following  Him,  the  wonderful  cures,  and  so  forth. 
We  have  not  records  of  this  period  sufficient  to  enable  us  to 
follow  Him  step  by  step.  We  find  Him  on  the  borders  of 
Samaria,  in  Peraea,  on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan,  in  Bethany,  in 
the  village  of  Ephraim.  But  Jerusalem  was  His  goal.  His  face 
was  set  like  a  flint  for  it.  Sometimes  He  was  so  absorbed  in  the 
anticipation  of  what  was  to  befall  Him  there,  that  His  disciples, 
following  His  swift,  mute  figure  along  the  highway,  were  amazed 
and  afraid.  Now  and  then,  indeed,  He  would  relax  for  a  little, 
as  when  He  was  blessing  the  little  children  or  visiting  the  home 
of  His  friends  at  Bethany.  But  His  mood  at  this  period  was 
more  stern,  absorbed,  and  highly  strung  than  ever  before.  His 
contests  with  His  enemies  were  sharper,  the  conditions  which  He 
imposed  on  those  who  offered  to  be  His  disciples  more  stringent. 
Everything  denoted  that  the  end  was  drawing  near.  He  was  in 
the  grip  of  His  grand  purpose  of  atoning  for  the  sins  of  the  world, 
and  His  soul  was  straitened  till  it  should  be  accomplished. 

143.  The  catastrophe  drew  nigh  apace.  He  paid  two  brief 
visits  to  Jerusalem,  before  the  final  one,  during  His  last  six 
months.  On  both  occasions  the  opposition  of  the  authorities 
assumed  the  most  menacing  form.  They  endeavoured  to  arrest 
Him  on  the  first  occasion,  and  took  up  stones  to  stone  Him  on 
the  second.  They  had  already  issued  a  decree  that  any  one 
acknowledging  Him  to  be  the  Messiah  should  be  excommuni- 
cated.   But  it  was  the  excitement  produced  in  the  popular  mind 


THE  YEAR  OF  OPPOSITION.  101 

by  the  raising  of  Lazarus  at  the  very  gates  of  the  ecclesiastical 
citadel  which  finally  convinced  the  authorities  that  they  could 
not  satisfy  themselves  with  anything  short  of  His  death.  So  they 
resolved  in  council.  This  took  place  only  a  month  or  two  before 
the  end  came,  and  it  drove  Him  for  the  time  from  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Jerusalem.  But  He  retired  only  until  the  hour  wliich 
His  Father  had  appointed  Him  should  strike. 


CHAPTER   VI. 
THE  END. 

I'aragraphs  144-205. 

144.  The  Passover. 

145- 152.  The  Final  Breach  with  the  Nation, 

145.  His  Arrival  in  Bethany  ;  146-149.  The  Triumphal 
Entry  into  Jerusalem  ;  150.  The  Great  Day  of  Con- 
troversy; 151,  152.  Judas  Iscariot. 

153-162.  Jesus  in  Presence  of  Death, 

153,154.  Multitude  of  His  Thoughts  ;  155.  Prospect  of 
Death,  Visit  of  Greeks;  156.  Compassion  for  His 
Country;  157,  158.  Loneliness;  159.  The  Consola- 
tion of  Prayer;  160.  In  the  Upper  Room;  161,  162, 
Gethsemane, 

163-189.  The  Trial, 

164,  165.  Double  Trial ;  Reason  of  this, 
166-173.  Ecclesiastical  Trial — 

166.  Before    Annas;    167-171,    Before    Caiaphas, 
Condemnation  for  Blasphemy;  172,  Irregularity; 
173.  Mockery  of  Jesus, 
174-189.   Civil  Trial— 

174-180.   Before  Pilate  for  the  First  Time — 

174-176.  Procession  to  the  Palace;  177.   The 
Case  must  be  pled;    178.  Civil  Charges; 
179.   'What  is  Truth?'     180.   He  is  pro- 
nounced innocent, 
181.  Before  Herod. 
182-189.   Before  Pilate  again — 

182.  Pilate's  Diplomacy  ;  183,  Barabbas  ;  184. 
Scourging;  185.  '  Ecce  Homo;'  186. 
Pilate's  Religious  Dread;  187.  Threat  to 
complain  to  the  Emperor ;  188.  Pilate 
gives  way;  189.  The  Jews  surrender  their 
History. 

190-198.  The  Crucifixion. 

191,  The  Crowd  ;  192.  Calvary ;  193.  Horrors  of  this 
Form  of  Death  ;  194.  His  Triumph  over  them  ; 
195.  His  Mental  Sufferings ;  196.  Bearing  the  Sin 
of  the  World;  197.  Darkness;  198.  Last  Words. 

199-205.  The  Resurrection  and  Ascension. 

199.  Christianity  Dead  ;  201,  202.  Breakdown  of  Dis- 
cij^les ;  203.  Resurrection  of  Christianity;  204. 
The  Risen  One  ;  205.  The  Ascension 


CHAPTER    VI. 


THE  END. 


144.  At  length  the  third  year  of  His  ministry  verged  towards 
its  close,  and  the  revolving  seasons  brought  round  the  great 
annual  feast  of  the  Passover.  It  is  said  that  as  many  as  two  or 
three  millions  of  strangers  were  gathered  in  Jerusalem  on  such 
an  occasion.  They  not  only  flocked  from  every  part  of  Palestine, 
but  came  over  sea  and  land  from  all  the  countries  in  which  the 
seed  of  Abraham  were  dispersed,  in  order  to  celebrate  the  event 
in  which  their  national  history  began.  They  were  brought 
together  by  very  various  motives.  Some  came  with  the  solemn 
thoughts  and  deep  religious  joy  of  minds  responsive  to  the 
memories  of  the  venerable  occasion.  Some  looked  forward 
chiefly  to  reunion  with  relatives  and  friends  who  had  been  long 
parted  from  them  by  residence  in  distant  places.  Not  a  few  of 
the  baser  sort  brought  with  them  the  darling  passions  ot  their 
race,  and  were  chiefly  intent  on  achieving  in  so  great  a  concourse 
some  important  stroke  of  business.  But  this  year  the  minds  of 
tens  of  thousands  were  full  of  an  unusual  excitement,  and  they 
came  up  to  the  capital  expecting  to  see  something  more  remark- 
able than  they  had  ever  witnessed  there  before.  They  hoped  to 
see  Jesus  at  the  feast,  and  entertained  many  vague  forebodings 
as  to  what  might  happen  in  connection  with  Him.  His  name 
was  the  word  oftenest  passing  from  mouth  to  mouth  among  tlie 
pilgrim  bands  that  crowded  along  the  highways,  and  among  tlie 


I04  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Jewish  groups  that  talked  together  on  the  decks  of  the  ships 
coming  from  Asia  Minor  and  Egypt.  Nearly  all  His  own 
disciples  no  doubt  were  there,  and  were  ardently  cherishing  the 
hope  that  at  last  in  this  concourse  of  the  nation  He  would  throw 
off  the  guise  of  humihty  which  concealed  His  glory,  and  in  some 
irresistible  way  demonstrate  His  Messiahship.  There  must  have 
been  thousands  from  the  southern  portions  of  the  country,  in 
which  He  had  recently  been  spending  His  time,  who  came  full 
of  the  same  enthusiastic  views  about  Him  as  were  entertained 
in  Galilee  at  the  close  of  His  first  year  there  ;  and  no  doubt  there 
were  multitudes  of  the  Galileans  themselves  who  were  favourably 
disposed  towards  Him  and  ready  to  take  the  deepest  interest  in 
any  new  development  of  His  affairs.  Tens  of  thousands  from 
more  distant  parts,  who  had  heard  of  Him,  but  never  seen  Him, 
arrived  in  the  capital  in  the  hope  that  He  might  be  there,  and 
that  they  might  enjoy  the  opportunity  of  seeing  a  miracle  or 
listening  to  the  words  of  the  new  prophet.  The  authorities  in 
Jerusalem,  too,  awaited  His  coming  with  very  mingled  feelings. 
They  hoped  that  some  turn  of  events  might  give  them  the  chance 
of  at  last  suppressing  Him  ;  but  they  could  not  help  fearing  that 
He  might  appear  at  the  head  of  a  provincial  following  which 
would  place  them  at  His  mercy. 

145.  The  Final  Breach  with  the  Nation. — Six  days,  before  the 
Passover  began,  He  arrived  in  Bethany,  the  village  of  His  friends 
Martha,  Mary,  and  Lazarus,  which  lay  half-an-hour  from  the 
city  on  the  other  side  of  the  summit  of  the  Mount  of  Olives.  It 
was  a  convenient  place  to  lodge  during  the  feast,  and  He  took  up 
His  quarters  with  His  friends.  The  solemnities  were  to  begin 
on  a  Thursday,  so  that  it  was  on  the  previous  Friday  He  arrived 
there.  He  had  been  accompanied  the  last  twenty  miles  of  His 
journey  by  an  immense  multitude  of  the  pilgrims,  to  whom  He 
was  the  centre  of  interest.  They  had  seen  Him  healing  blind 
Bartimaeus  at  Jericho,  and  the  miracle  had  produced  among 
them  extraordinary  excitement.     When  they  reached  Bethany, 


THE  END.  105 

the  village  was  ringing  with  the  recent  resurrection  of  Lazarus, 
and  they  carried  on  the  news  to  the  crowds  who  had  already 
arrived  from  all  c^uarters  in  Jerusalem,  that  Jesus  had  come. 

146.  Accordingly,  when,  after  resting  over  the  Sabbath  in 
Bethany,  He  came  forth  on  the  Sunday  morning  to  proceed  to 
the  city,  He  found  the  streets  of  the  village  and  the  neighbour- 
ing roads  thronged  with  a  vast  crowd,  consisting  partly  of  those 
who  had  accompanied  Him  on  the  Friday,  partly  of  other  com- 
panies who  had  come  up  behind  Him  from  Jericho  and  heard  of 
the  miracles  as  they  came  along,  and  partly  of  those  who,  having 
heard  that  He  was  at  hand,  had  flocked  out  from  Jerusalem  to 
see  Him.  They  welcomed  Him  with  enthusiasm,  and  began  to 
shout,  '  Hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David  !  Blessed  is  He  that  cometh 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord!  Hosanna  in  the  highest!'  It  was  a 
Messianic  demonstration  such  as  He  had  formerly  avoided.  But 
now  He  yielded  to  it.  Probably  He  was  satisfied  with  the 
sincerity  of  the  homage  paid  to  Him  ;  and  the  hour  had  come 
when  no  considerations  could  permit  Him  any  longer  to  conceal 
from  the  nation  the  character  in  which  He  presented  Himself 
and  the  claim  He  made  on  its  faith.  But,  in  yielding  to  the 
desires  of  the  multitude  that  He  should  assume  the  style  of  a 
king,  He  made  it  unmistakeable  in  what  sense  He  accepted  the 
honour.  He  sent  for  an  ass-colt,  and,  His  disciples  having  spread 
their  garments  on  it,  rode  at  the  head  of  the  crowd.  Not  armed 
to  the  teeth  or  bestriding  a  war-horse  did  He  come,  but  as  the 
King  of  simplicity  and  peace.  The  procession  swept  over  the 
brow  of  Olivet  and  down  the  mountain  -  side ;  it  crossed  the 
Kedron,  and,  mounting  the  slope  which  led  to  the  gate  of  the  city, 
passed  on  through  the  streets  to  the  temple.  It  swelled  as  it 
went,  great  numbers  hurrying  from  every  quarter  to  join  it ;  the 
shouts  rang  louder  and  more  loud  ;  the  processionists  broke  off 
twigs  from  the  palms  and  olives,  as  they  passed,  and  waved  them 
in  triumph.  The  citizens  of  Jerusalem  ran  to  their  doors  and 
bent  over  their  balconies  to  look,  and  asked,  '  Who  is  this?'  to 
wliich  the  processionists  replied  with  provincial  pride,  '  This  is 


Io6  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Jesus,  the  prophet  of  Nazareth.'  It  was,  in  fact,  an  entirely  pro- 
vincial demonstration.  The  Jerusalemites  took  no  part  in  it,  but 
held  coldly  aloof.  The  authorities  knew  only  too  well  what  it 
meant,  and  beheld  it  with  rage  and  dread.  They  came  to  Jesus, 
and  ordered  Him  to  bid  His  followers  hold  their  peace,  hinting 
no  doubt  that,  if  He  did  not  do  so,  the  Roman  garrison,  which 
was  stationed  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  would  pounce  on  Him 
and  them,  and  punish  the  city  for  an  act  of  treason  to  Cassar. 

147.  There  is  no  point  in  the  life  of  Jesus  at  which  we  are  more 
urged  to  ask.  What  would  have  happened  if  His  claim  had  been 
conceded, — if  the  citizens  of  Jerusalem  had  been  carried  away 
with  the  enthusiasm  of  the  provincials,  and  the  prejudices  of 
priests  and  scribes  had  been  borne  down  before  the  torrent  ot 
public  approval  ?  Would  Jesus  have  put  Himself  at  the  head  of 
the  nation  and  inaugurated  an  era  of  the  world's  history  totally 
different  from  that  which  followed  ?  These  questions  very  soon 
carry  us  beyond  our  depth,  yet  no  intelligent  reader  ot  the 
Gospels  can  help  asking  them. 

148.  Jesus  had  formally  made  offer  of  Himself  to  the  capital 
and  the  authorities  of  the  nation,  but  met  with  no  response. 
The  provincial  recognition  of  His  claim.s  was  insufficient  to 
carry  a  national  assent.  He  accepted  the  decision  as  final. 
The  multitude  expected  a  signal  from  Him,  and  in  their  excited 
mood  would  have  obeyed  it,  whatever  it  might  have  been.  But 
He  gave  them  none,  and,  after  looking  round  about  Him  for  a 
little  in  the  temple,  left  them  and  returned  to  Bethany. 

149.  Doubtless  the  disappointment  of  the  multitude  was 
extreme,  and  an  opportunity  was  offered  to  the  authorities  which 
they  did  not  fail  to  make  use  of.  The  Pharisees  needed  no 
stimulus ;  but  even  the  Sadducees,  those  cold  and  haughty 
friends  of  order,  espied  danger  to  the  public  peace  in  the  state 
of  the  popular  mind,  and  leagued  themselves  with  their  bitter 
enemies  in  the  resolution  to  suppress  Him. 

150.  On  Monday  and  Tuesday  He  appeared  again  in  the  city 

But  on 


THE  END.  107 

the  second  of  these  days  the  authorities  interposed.  Pharisees, 
Sadducees,  and  Herodians,  high  priests,  priests,  and  scribes, 
were  for  once  combined  in  a  common  cause.  They  came  to 
Him,  as  He  taught  in  the  temple,  and  demanded  by  what 
authority  He  did  such  things.  In  all  the  pomp  of  official 
costume,  of  social  pride  and  popular  renown,  they  set  them- 
selves against  the  simple  Galilean,  while  the  multitudes  looked 
on.  They  entered  into  a  keen  and  prolonged  controversy  with 
Him  on  points  selected  beforehand,  putting  forward  their 
champions  of  debate  to  entangle  Him  in  His  talk,  their  distinct 
object  being,  either  to  discredit  Him  with  the  audience  or  to 
elicit  something  from  His  lips  in  the  heat  of  argument  which 
might  form  a  ground  of  accusation  against  Him  before  the  civil 
authority.  Thus,  for  example,  they  asked  Him  if  it  was  lawful 
to  give  tribute  to  Caesar.  If  He  answered  Yes,  they  knew  that 
His  popularity  would  perish  on  the  instant,  for  it  would  be  a 
complete  contradiction  of  the  popular  Messianic  ideas.  If,  on 
the  contrary.  He  answered  No,  they  would  accuse  Him  of 
treason  before  the  Roman  governor.  But  Jesus  was  far  more  than 
a  match  for  them.  Hour  by  hour  He  stedfastly  met  the  attack. 
His  straightforwardness  put  their  duplicity  to  shame,  and  His 
skill  in  argument  turned  every  spear  which  they  directed  at  Him 
round  to  their  own  breasts.  At  last  He  carried  the  war  into  their 
own  territory,  and  convicted  them  of  such  ignorance  or  lack  of 
candour  as  completely  put  them  to  shame  before  the  onlookers. 
Then,  when  He  had  silenced  them,  He  let  loose  the  storm  of  His 
indignation,  and  delivered  against  them  the  philippic  which  is 
recorded  in  the  twenty-third  chapter  of  Matthew.  Giving  un- 
restrained expression  to  the  pent-up  criticism  of  a  lifetime.  He 
exposed  their  hypocritical  practices  in  sentences  that  fell  like 
strokes  of  lightning  and  made  them  a  scorn  and  laughing-stock, 
not  only  to  the  hearers  then,  but  to  all  the  world  since. 

151.  It  was  the  final  breach  between  Him  and  them.  They 
had  been  utterly  humiliated  before  the  whole  people,  over  whom 
they    were    set    in   authority  and   honour.     They   felt   it   to   be 


I08  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

intolerable,  and  resolved  not  to  lose  an  hour  in  seeking  theit 
revenge.  That  very  evening  the  Sanhedrim  met  in  passionate 
mood  to  devise  a  plan  for  making  away  with  Him.  Nicodemus 
and  Joseph  of  Arimathea  may  have  raised  a  solitary  protest 
against  their  precipitate  proceedings;  but  they  indignantly 
silenced  them,  and  were  unanimously  of  opinion  that  He 
should  forthwith  be  put  to  death.  But  circumstances  checked 
their  cruel  haste.  At  least  the  forms  of  justice  would  have  to 
be  gone  through ;  and  besides,  Jesus  evidently  enjoyed  an 
immense  popularity  among  the  strangers  who  filled  the  city. 
What  might  not  the  idle  crowd  do  if  He  were  arrested  before 
their  eyes  ?  It  was  necessary  to  wait  till  the  mass  of  the  pilgrims 
had  left  the  city.  They  had  just  with  great  reluctance  arrived 
at  this  conclusion,  when  they  received  a  most  unexpected  and 
gratifying  surprise.  One  of  His  own  disciples  appeared,  and 
offered  to  betray  Him  for  a  price. 

152.  Judas  Iscariot  is  the  byword  of  the  human  race.  In  his 
Vision  of  Hell  Dante  has  placed  him  in  the  lowest  of  the  circles 
of  the  damned,  as  the  sole  sharer  with  Satan  himself  of  the  very 
uttermost  punishment ;  and  the  poet's  verdict  is  that  oi  man- 
kind. Yet  he  was  not  such  a  monster  of  iniquity  as  to  be  utterly 
beyond  comprehension  or  even  sympathy.  The  history  oi  his 
base  and  appalling  lapse  is  perfectly  intelligible.  He  had  joined 
the  discipleship  of  Jesus,  as  the  other  apostles  also  did,  in  the 
hope  of  taking  part  in  a  political  revolution  and  occupying  a 
distinguished  place  in  an  earthly  kingdom.  It  is  inconceivable 
that  Jesus  would  have  made  him  an  apostle  if  there  had  not  at 
one  time  been  some  noble  enthusiasm  in  him,  and  some  attach- 
ment to  Himself.  That  he  was  a  man  of  superior  energy  and 
administrative  ability  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  he  was 
made  the  purse-bearer  of  the  apostolic  company.  But  there 
was  a  canker  at  the  root  of  his  character,  which  gradually 
absorbed  all  that  was  excellent  in  him,  and  became  a  tyranni- 
cal passion.  It  was  the  love  of  money.  He  fed  it  by  the 
petty  peculations  which  he  practised  on  the  small  sums  which 


THE  END.  109 

Jesus  received  from  His  friends  for  the  necessities  of  His 
company  and  for  distribution  among  the  poor  with  whom 
He  was  daily  mingling.  He  hoped  to  give  it  unrestrained 
gratification  when  He  became  chancellor  of  the  exchequer  in  the 
new  kingdom.  The  views  of  the  other  apostles  were  perhaps  as 
worldly  to  begin  with  as  his.  But  the  history  of  their  intercourse 
with  their  Master  was  totally  different.  They  became  ever  more 
spiritual,  he  ever  more  worldly.  They  never,  indeed,  as  long  as 
Jesus  lived,  rose  to  the  idea  of  a  spiritual  kingdom  apart  from  an 
earthly  one  ;  but  the  spiritual  elements  which  their  Master  had 
taught  them  to  add  to  their  material  conception  grew  more  and 
more  prominent,  till  the  earthly  heart  was  eaten  out  of  it,  and 
merely  the  empty  shell  was  left,  to  be  in  due  time  crushed  and 
blown  away.  But  Judas'  earthly  views  became  more  and  more 
engrossing,  and  were  more  and  more  divested  of  every  spiritual 
adjunct.  He  grew  impatient  for  their  realization.  Preaching 
and  healing  seemed  to  him  waste  of  time  ;  the  purity  and  un- 
worldliness  of  Jesus  irritated  him  ;  why  did  He  not  bring  on  the 
kingdom  at  once,  and  then  preach  as  much  as  He  chose  after- 
wards !  At  last  he  began  to  suspect  that  there  was  to  be  no 
kingdom  such  as  he  had  hoped  for  at  all.  He  felt  that  he  had 
been  deceived,  and  began  not  only  to  despise  but  even  hate  his 
Master.  The  failure  of  Jesus  to  take  advantage  of  the  disposition 
of  the  people  on  Palm  Sunday  finally  convinced  him  that  it  was 
useless  to  hold  on  to  the  cause  any  longer.  He  saw  that  the  ship 
was  sinking  and  resolved  to  get  out  of  it.  He  carried  out  his 
resolution  in  such  a  way  as  both  to  gratify  his  master-passion  and 
secure  the  favour  of  the  authorities.  His  offer  came  to  them 
just  at  the  right  moment.  They  closed  with  it  greedily,  and, 
having  arranged  the  price  with  the  miserable  man,  sent  him  away 
to  find  a  convenient  opportunity  for  the  betrayal.  He  found  it 
sooner  than  they  expected — on  the  next  night  but  one  after  the 
dastardly  bargain  had  been  concluded. 

153.  Jesiis  ia  tho  Prospect  or  Death. — Christianity  has  no  more 


no  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST, 

precious  possession  than  ihe  memory  of  Jesus  during  the  week 
when  He  stood  face  to  face  with  death.  Unspeakably  great  as 
He  always  was,  it  may  be  reverently  said  that  He  was  never  so 
great  as  during  those  days  of  direst  calamity.  All  that  was 
grandest  and  all  that  was  most  tender,  the  most  human  and  the 
most  divine  aspects  of  His  character,  were  brought  out  as  they 
had  never  been  before. 

154.  He  came  to  Jerusalem  well  aware  that  He  was  about  to 
die.  For  a  whole  year  the  fact  had  been  staring  Him  constantly 
in  the  face,  and  the  long-lcoked-for  had  come  at  last.  He  knew 
it  was  His  Father's  will,  and,  when  the  hour  arrived.  He  bent  His 
steps  with  sublime  fortitude  to  the  fatal  spot.  It  was  not,  how- 
ever, without  a  terrible  conflict  of  feelings  ;  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
the  most  diverse  emotions — anguish  and  ecstasy,  the  most  pro- 
longed and  crushing  depression,  the  most  triumphant  joy  and 
the  most  majestic  peace — swayed  hither  and  thither  within  Him 
like  the  moods  of  a  vast  ocean. 

155.  Some  have  hesitated  to  attribute  to  Him  aught  of  that 
shrinking  from  death  which  is  natural  to  man ;  but  surely 
without  good  reason.  It  is  an  instinct  perfectly  innocent ;  and 
perhaps  the  very  fact  that  His  bodily  organism  was  pure  and 
perfect  may  have  made  it  stronger  in  Him  than  it  is  in  us. 
Remember  how  young  He  was  —  only  three  -  and  -  thirty  ;  the 
currents  of  life  were  powerful  in  Him  ;  He  was  full  of  the  instincts 
of  action.  To  have  these  strong  currents  rolled  back  and  the 
light  and  warmth  of  life  quenched  in  the  cold  waters  of  death 
must  have  been  utterly  repugnant  to  Him.  An  incident  which 
happened  on  the  Monday  caused  Him  a  great  shock  of  this 
instinctive  pain.  Some  Greeks  who  had  come  to  the  feast 
expressed  through  two  of  the  apostles  their  desire  for  an  inter- 
view with  Him.  There  were  many  heathens  in  different  parts  of 
the  Greek-speaking  world  who  at  this  period  had  found  refuge 
from  the  atheism  and  disgusting  immorality  of  the  times  in 
the  religion  of  the  Jews  settled  in  their  midst,  and  had 
accordingly  become  proselytes  of  the  worship  of  Jehovah.     To 


THE  END.  I  1 1 

this  class  these  inquirers  belonged.  But  their  application  shook 
Him  with  thoughts  which  they  little  dreamt  of.  Only  two  or 
three  times  in  the  course  of  His  ministry  docs  He  seem  to  have 
been  brought  into  contact  with  representatives  of  the  world  lying 
outside  the  limits  of  His  own  people,  His  mission  being  exclusively 
to  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel.  But  on  ever)'  such 
occasion  He  met  with  a  faith,  a  courtesy  and  nobility,  which  He 
Himself  contrasted  with  the  unbelief,  rudeness,  and  pettiness  of 
the  Jews.  How  could  He  help  longing  to  pass  beyond  the 
narrow  bounds  of  Palestine  and  visit  nations  of  such  simple 
and  generous  disposition  ?  He  must  often  have  seen  visions  of  a 
career  like  that  afterwards  achieved  by  Paul,  when  he  bore  the 
glad  tidings  Irom  land  to  land,  and  evangelized  Athens,  Rome, 
and  the  other  great  centres  of  the  West.  What  joy  such  a  career 
would  have  been  to  Jesus,  who  felt  within  Himself  the  energy 
and  overflowing  benevolence  which  it  would  have  exactly  suited ! 
But  death  was  at  hand  to  extinguish  all.  The  visit  of  the  Greeks 
caused  a  great  wave  of  such  thoughts  to  break  over  Him.  Instead 
of  responding  to  their  request,  He  became  abstracted.  His  face 
darkened,  and  His  frame  was  shaken  with  the  tremor  of  an  inward 
conflict.  But  He  soon  recovered  Himself,  and  gave  expression 
to  the  thoughts  on  which  in  those  days  He  was  steadying 
up  His  soul  :  'Except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and 
die,  it  abideth  alone  ;  but  if  it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit.' 
'  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto 
Me,'  He  could  see  beyond  death,  terrible  and  absorbing  as 
the  prospect  of  it  was,  and  assure  Himself  that  the  effect  of 
II  is  self-sacrifice  would  be  infinitely  grander  and  more  extensive 
than  that  of  a  personal  mission  to  the  heathen  world  could  ever 
have  been.  Besides,  death  was  what  His  Father  had  appointed 
for  Him.  This  was  the  last  and  deepest  consolation  with  which  He 
soothed  His  humble  and  trustful  soul  on  this  as  on  every  similar 
occasion :  '  Now  is  my  soul  troubled  ;  and  what  shall  I  say  ? 
Father,  save  me  from  this  hour  :  but  for  this  cause  came  I  unto 
this  hour.     Father,  glorify  Thyself.' 


112  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

156.  Death  approached  Him  with  every  terrible  accompani- 
ment. He  was  to  fall  a  victim  to  the  treachery  of  a  follower  of 
His  own,  whom  He  had  chosen  and  loved.  His  life  was  to  be 
taken  by  the  hands  of  His  own  nation,  in  the  city  of  His  heart. 
He  had  come  to  exalt  His  nation  to  heaven,  and  had  loved  her 
with  a  devotion  nourished  by  the  most  intelligent  and  sympa- 
thetic acquaintance  with  her  past  history  and  with  the  great  men 
who  had  loved  her  before  Him,  as  well  as  by  the  sense  of  all 
which  He  Himself  was  able  to  do  for  her.  But  His  death  would 
bring  down  the  blight  of  a  thousand  curses  on  Palestine  and 
Jerusalem.  How  clearly  He  foresaw  what  was  coming  was 
shown  by  the  memorable  prophetic  discourse  of  the  twenty-fourth 
of  Matthew,  which  He  spoke  on  Tuesday  afternoon  to  His  dis- 
ciples, sitting  on  the  side  of  Mount  Olivet,  with  the  doomed  city 
at  His  feet.  How  bitter  was  the  anguish  it  caused  Him  was  shown 
on  the  Sunday,  when,  even  in  His  hour  of  triumph,  as  the  joyful 
multitude  bore  Him  down  the  mountain  road,  He  stopped  at  the 
point  where  the  city  burst  upon  the  view,  and  with  tears  and 
lamentations  predicted  its  fate.  It  ought  to  have  been  the  faif 
city's  bridal  day,  when  she  should  have  been  married  to  the  Son 
of  God  ;  but  the  pallor  of  death  was  on  her  face.  He  who 
would  have  taken  her  to  His  heart,  as  the  hen  gathers  her 
chickens  under  her  wings,  saw  the  eagles  already  in  the  air, 
flying  fast  to  rend  her  in  pieces. 

157.  In  the  evenings  of  this  week  He  went  out  to  Bethany; 
but  in  all  probability  He  spent  most  of  the  nights  alone  in  the 
open  air.  He  wandered  about  in  the  solitude  of  the  hill-top  and 
among  the  olive-groves  and  gardens  with  which  the  sides  of  the 
mount  were  covered ;  many  a  time,  perhaps,  going  along  the  same 
road  down  which  the  procession  had  passed,  and,  as  He  looked 
across  the  valley,  from  the  point  where  He  had  stopped  before, 
at  the  city  sleeping  in  the  moonlight,  startling  the  night  with  cries 
more  bitter  than  the  lamentation  which  overawed  the  multitude  ; 
many  a  time  repeating  to  His  lonely  heart  the  great  truths  He 
had  uttered  in  the  presence  of  the  Greeks. 


THE  END.  1 1 3 

158.  He  was  terribly  alone.  The  whole  world  was  against 
Him, — Jerusalem  panting  for  His  life  with  passionate  hate,  the 
tens  of  thousands  from  the  provinces  turned  from  Him  in  dis- 
appointment. Not  one  even  of  His  apostles,  not  even  John,  was 
in  the  least  aware  of  the  real  situation,  or  able  to  be  the  con- 
fidant of  His  thoughts.  This  was  one  of  the  bitterest  drops  in 
His  cup.  He  lelt  as  no  other  person  has  ever  felt  the  necessity 
of  living  on  in  the  world  after  death.  The  cause  He  had 
inaugurated  must  not  die.  It  was  for  the  whole  world,  and  was 
to  endure  through  all  generations  and  visit  every  part  of  the 
globe.  But  after  His  departure  it  would  be  left  in  the  hands 
of  His  apostles,  who  were  now  showing  themselves  so  weak, 
unsympathetic,  and  ignorant.  Were  they  fit  for  the  task  ?  Had 
not  one  of  them  turned  out  a  traitor?  Would  not  the  cause, 
when  He  was  gone, — so  perhaps  the  tempter  whispered, — go  to 
wreck,  and  all  His  far-reaching  plans  for  the  regeneration  of  the 
world  vanish  like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision  ? 

159.  Yet  He  was  not  alone.  Among  the  deep  shadows  of  the 
gardens  and  upon  the  summits  of  Olivet,  He  sought  the  unfail- 
ing resource  of  other  and  less  troubled  days,  and  found  it  still  in 
His  dire  need.  His  Father  was  with  Him ;  and,  pouring  out 
supplications  with  strong  crying  and  tears.  He  was  heard  in  that 
He  feared.  He  hushed  His  spirit  with  the  sense  that  His 
Father's  perfect  love  and  wisdom  were  appointing  all  that  was 
happening  to  Him,  and  that  He  was  glorifying  His  Father  and 
fulfilling  the  work  given  Him  to  do.  This  could  banish  every 
fear,  and  fill  Him  with  a  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory. 

160.  At  last  the  end  drew  very  near.  The  Thursday  evening 
arrived,  when  in  every  house  in  Jerusalem  the  Passover  was 
eaten.  Jesus  also  with  the  Twelve  sat  down  to  eat  it.  He  knew 
that  it  was  His  last  night  on  earth,  and  that  this  was  His  farewell 
meeting  with  His  own.  Happily  there  has  been  preserved  to  us 
a  full  account  of  it,  with  which  every  Christian  mind  is  familiar. 
It  was  the  greatest  evening  in  His  life.  His  soul  overflowed  in 
indescribable  tenderness  and  grandeur.     Some  shadows  indeed 

H 


114  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

fell  across  His  spirit  in  the  earlier  hours  of  the  evening.  Eut 
they  soon  passed  ;  and  throughout  the  scenes  of  the  washing  of 
the  disciples'  feet,  the  eating  of  the  Passover,  the  institution  of 
the  Lord's  Supper,  the  farevv^ell  address,  and  the  great  high- 
priestly  prayer,  the  whole  glory  of  His  character  shone  out.  He 
completely  resigned  Himself  to  the  genial  impulses  of  friendship, 
His  love  to  His  own  flowing  forth  without  limit ;  and,  as  if  He 
had  forgotten  all  their  imperfections,  He  rejoiced  in  the  antici- 
pation of  their  future  successes  and  the  triumph  of  His  cause. 
Not  a  shadow  intercepted  His  view  of  the  face  of  His  Father 
or  dimmed  the  satisfaction  with  which  He  looked  on  His  own 
work  just  about  to  be  completed.  It  was  as  if  the  Passion  were 
already  past,  and  the  glory  of  His  Exaltation  were  already  break- 
ing around  Him. 

i6r.  But  the  reaction  came  very  soon.  Rising  from  the  table 
at  midnight,  they  passed  through  the  streets  and  out  of  the  town 
by  the  eastern  gate  of  the  city,  and,  crossing  the  Kedron, 
reached  a  well-known  haunt  of  His  at  the  foot  of  Olivet,  the 
garden  of  Gethsemane.  Here  ensued  the  awful  and  memorable 
Agony.  It  was  the  final  access  of  the  mood  of  depression 
which  had  been  struggling  all  the  week  with  the  mood  of  joy  and 
trust  whose  culmination  had  been  reached  at  the  supper  table. 
It  was  the  final  onset  of  temptation,  from  which  His  life  had 
never  been  free.  But  we  fear  to  analyze  the  elements  of  the 
scene.  We  know  that  any  conception  of  ours  must  be  utterly 
unable  to  exhaust  its  meaning.  How,  above  all,  can  we  estimate 
in  the  faintest  degree  the  chief  element  in  it, — the  crushing, 
scorching  pressure  of  the  sin  of  the  world,  which  He  was  then 
expiating  ? 

162.  But  the  struggle  ended  in  a  complete  victory.  While  the 
poor  disciples  were  sleeping  away  the  hours  of  preparation  for 
the  crisis  which  was  at  hand.  He  had  thoroughly  equipped 
Himself  for  it ;  He  had  fought  down  the  last  remnants  of  tempta- 
tion ;  the  bitterness  of  death  was  past ;  and  He  was  able  to  go 
through  the  scenes  which  followed  with  a  calmness  which  nothing 


THE  END. 


IIS 


could  ruffle,  and  a  majesty  which  converted  His  trial  and  cruci- 
fixion into  the  pride  and  glory  of  humanity. 

163.  The  Trial — He  had  just  overcome  in  this  struggle  uhen 
through  the  branches  of  the  olives  He  saw,  moving  in  the  moon- 
light down  the  opposite  slope,  the  mass  of  His  enemies  coming 
to  arrest  Him.  The  traitor  was  at  their  head.  He  was  well 
acquainted  with  his  Master's  haunt  and  probably  hoped  to 
find  Him  there  asleep.  For  this  reason  he  had  chosen  the 
midnight  hour  for  his  dark  deed.  It  suited  his  employers 
well  too,  for  they  were  afraid  to  lay  hands  on  Jesus  in  the  day- 
time, dreading  the  temper  of  the  Galilean  strangers  who  filled 
the  city.  But  they  knew  how  it  would  overawe  His  Iriends, 
if,  getting  His  trial  over  during  the  night,  they  could  show  Him 
in  the  morning,  when  the  populace  awoke,  already  a  condemned 
criminal  in  the  hands  of  the  executors  of  the  law.  They  had 
brought  lanterns  and  torches  with  them,  thinking  they  might 
find  their  victim  crouching  in  some  cave,  or  that  they  might 
have  to  pursue  Him  through  the  wood.  But  He  came  forth  to 
meet  them  at  the  entrance  to  the  garden,  and  they  quailed  like 
cravens  before  His  majestic  looks  and  withering  words.  He 
freely  surrendered  Himself  into  their  hands,  and  they  led  Him 
back  to  the  city.  It  was  probably  about  midnight ;  and  the 
remaining  hours  of  the  night  and  the  early  hours  of  the  morning 
were  occupied  with  the  legal  proceedings  which  had  to  be  gone 
through,  before  they  could  gratify  their  thirst  for  His  life. 

164.  There  were  two  trials,  an  ecclesiastical  one  and  a  civil 
one,  in  each  of  which  there  were  three  stages.  The  former 
took  place,  first  before  Annas,  then  before  Caiaphas  and  an 
informal  committee  of  the  Sanhedrim,  and,  lastly,  befoi:e  a 
regular  meeting  of  this  court ;  the  latter  took  place,  first  before 
Pilate,  then  before  Herod,  and,  lastly,  before  Pilate  again. 

165.  The  reason  of  this  double  legal  process  was  the  political 
situation  of  the  country.  Judcca,  as  has  been  already  explained, 
was   directly  subject  to  the  Roman  empire,  forming  a  part  of 


Il6  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

the  province  of  Syria,  and  being  governed  by  a  Roman  officerj 
who  resided  at  Csesarea.  But  it  was  not  the  practice  of  Rome 
to  strip  those  countries  which  she  had  subdued  of  all  the  forms 
of  native  government.  Though  she  ruled  with  an  iron  hand, 
collecting  her  taxes  with  severity,  suppressing  every  sign  of 
rebellion  with  promptitude,  and  asserting  her  paramount  authority 
on  great  occasions,  yet  she  conceded  to  the  conquered  as  many 
of  the  insignia  as  possible  of  their  ancient  power.  She  was 
especially  tolerant  in  matters  of  religion.  Thus  the  Sanhedrim, 
the  supreme  ecclesiastical  court  of  the  Jews,  was  still  permitted 
to  try  all  religious  causes.  Only,  if  the  sentence  passed  was  a 
capital  one,  its  execution  could  not  take  place  without  the  case 
being  tried  over  again  before  the  governor.  So  that,  when  a 
prisoner  was  convicted  by  the  Jewish  ecclesiastical  tribunal  of 
a  capital  crime,  he  had  to  be  sent  down  to  Csesarea  and  prose- 
cuted before  the  civil  court,  unless  the  governor  happened  to 
be  at  the  time  in  Jerusalem.  The  crime  of  -which  Jesus  was 
accused  was  one  which  naturally  came  before  the  ecclesiastical 
court.  This  court  passed  on  Him  a  death  sentence.  But  it  had 
not  the  power  to  carry  it  out.  It  had  to  hand  Him  on  to  the 
tribunal  of  the  governor,  who  happened  at  the  time  to  be  in  the 
capital,  which  he  generally  visited  at  the  Passover. 

i66.  Jesus  was  conducted  first  to  the  palace  of  Annas.  He 
was  an  old  man  of  seventy,  who  had  been  high  priest  a  score  of 
years  before,  and  still  retained  the  title,  as  did  also  five  of  his 
sons  who  had  succeeded  him,  though  his  son-in-law  Caiaphas 
was  the  actual  high-priest.  His  age,  ability,  and  family  influence 
gave  him  immense  social  weight,  and  he  was  the  virtual,  though 
not  formal,  head  of  the  Sanhedrim.  He  did  not  try  Jesus,  but 
merely  wished  to  see  Him  and  ask  a  few  questions ;  so  that  He 
was  very  soon  led  away  from  the  palace  of  Annas  to  that  of 
Caiaphas,  which  probably  formed  part  of  the  same  group  of 
official  buildings. 

167.  Caiaphas,  as  ruling  high  -  priest,  was   president   of  the 


THE  END. 


117 


Sanhedrim,  before  which  Jesus  was  tried.  A  legal  meeting  of 
this  court  could  not  be  held  before  sunrise,  perhaps  about  six 
o'clock.  But  there  were  many  of  its  members  already  on  the 
spot,  who  had  been  drawn  together  by  their  interest  in  the 
case.  They  were  eager  to  get  to  work,  both  to  gratify  their  own 
dislike  to  Him  and  to  prevent  the  interference  of  the  populace 
with  their  proceedings.  Accordingly  they  resolved  to  hold  an 
informal  meeting  at  once,  at  which  the  accusation,  evidence  and 
so  forth  might  be  put  into  shape,  so  that,  when  the  legal  hour 
for  opening  their  doors  arrived,  there  might  be  nothing  to  do 
but  to  repeat  the  necessary  formalities  and  carry  Him  off  to  the 
governor.  This  was  done ;  and,  while  Jerusalem  slept,  these 
eager  judges  hurried  forward  their  dark  designs. 

168.  They  did  not  begin,  as  might  have  been  expected,  with 
a  clear  statement  of  the  crime  with  which  He  was  charged. 
Indeed,  it  would  have  been  difficult  for  them  to  do  so,  for  they 
were  divided  among  themselves.  Many  things  in  His  life  which 
the  Pharisees  regarded  as  criminal  were  treated  by  the  Sadducees 
with  indifference;  and  other  acts  of  His,  like  the  cleansing  of 
the  temple,  which  had  enraged  the  Sadducees,  afforded  gratifi- 
cation to  the  Pharisees. 

169.  The  high-priest  began  with  questioning  Him  as  to  His 
disciples  and  doctrine,  evidently  with  the  view  of  discoveiing 
Avhether  He  had  taught  any  revolutionary  tenets,  which  might 
form  a  ground  of  accusation  before  the  governor.  But  Jesus 
repelled  the  insinuation,  indignantly  asserting  that  He  had  ever 
spoken  openly  before  the  world,  and  demanded  a  statement  and 
proof  of  any  evil  He  had  done.  This  unusual  reply  induced 
one  of  the  minions  of  the  court  to  smite  Him  on  the  mouth  with 
his  fist — an  act  which  the  court  apparently  did  not  rebuke,  and 
which  showed  what  amount  of  justice  He  had  to  expect  at  the 
hands  of  His  judges.  An  attempt  was  then  made  to  bring  proof 
against  Him,  a  number  of  witnesses  repeating  various  statements 
they  had  heard  Him  make,  out  of  which  it  was  hoped  an  accusa- 
tion might  be  constructed.     But  it  turned  out  a  total  failure. 


Il8  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

The  witnesses  could  not  agree  among  themselves  ;  and  when  at 
last  two  were  got  to  unite  in  a  distorted  report  of  a  saying  of  His 
early  ministry,  which  appeared  to  have  some  colour  of  criminality, 
It  turned  out  to  be  a  thing  so  paltry  that  it  would  have  been 
absurd  to  appear  with  it  before  the  governor  as  the  ground  of  a 
serious  charge. 

170.  They  were  resolved  on  His  death,  but  the  prey  seemed 
Slipping  out  of  their  hands.  Jesus  looked  on  in  absolute  silence, 
while  the  contradictory  testimonies  of  the  witnesses  demolished 
each  other.  He  quietly  took  His  natural  position  far  above  His 
judges.  They  felt  it ;  and  at  last  the  president,  in  a  transport  of 
rage  and  irritation,  started  up  and  commanded  Him  to  speak. 
Why  was  he  so  loud  and  shrill  ?  The  humiliating  spectacle 
going  on  in  the  witness-box  and  the  silent  dignity  of  Jesus  were 
beginning  to  trouble  even  these  consciences,  assembled  in  the 
dead  of  night. 

171.  The  case  had  completely  broken  down,  when  Caiaphas. 
rose  from  his  seat,  and,  with  theatrical  solemnity,  asked  the 
question  :  '  I  adjure  Thee  by  the  living  God,  that  Thou  tell  us 
whether  Thou  be  the  Christ  the  Son  of  God.'  It  was  a  question 
asked  merely  in  order  to  induce  Jesus  to  criminate  Himself. 
Yet  He  who  had  kept  silence  when  He  might  have  spoken  now 
spoke  when  He  might  have  been  silent.  With  great  solemnity 
He  answered  in  the  affirmative,  that  He  was  the  Messiah  and  the 
Son  of  God.  Nothing  more  was  needed  by  His  judges.  They 
unanimously  pronounced  Him  guilty  of  blasphemy  and  worthy 
of  death. 

172.  The  whole  trial  had  been  conducted  with  precipitancy 
and  total  disregard  of  the  formalities  proper  to  a  court  of  law. 
Everything  was  dictated  by  the  desire  to  arrive  at  guilt,  not 
justice.  The  same  persons  were  both  prosecutors  and  judges. 
No  witnesses  for  the  defence  were  thought  of.  Though  the 
judges  were  doubtless  perfectly  conscientious  in  their  sentence, 
it  was  the  decision  of  minds  long  ago  shut  against  the  truth 
and  possessed  with  the  most  bitter  and  revengeiul  passions. 


THE  END, 


"9 


173.  The  trial  was  now  looked  upon  as  past,  the  legal  pro- 
ceedings after  sunrise  being  a  mere  formality,  which  would  be 
got  over  in  a  lew  minutes.  Accordingly,  Jesus  was  given  up  as 
a  condemned  man  to  the  cruelty  of  the  jailors  and  the  mob. 
Then  ensued  a  scene  over  which  one  would  gladly  draw  a  veil. 
There  broke  forth  on  Him  an  Oriental  brutality  of  abuse  which 
makes  the  blood  run  cold.  Apparently  the  Sanhedrists  them- 
selves took  part  in  it.  This  Man,  who  had  baffled  them,  impaired 
their  authority  and  exposed  their  hypocrisy,  was  very  hateful  to 
them.  Sadducean  coldness  could  boil  up  into  heat  enough  when 
it  was  really  roused.  Pharisaic  fanaticism  was  inventive  in  its 
cruelty.  They  smote  Him  with  their  fists,  they  spat  on  Him, 
they  blindfolded  Him,  and,  in  derision  of  His  prophetic  claims, 
bade  Him  prophesy  who  struck  Him,  as  they  took  their  turn  of 
smiting  Him. — But  we  will  not  dwell  on  a  scene  so  disgraceful 
to  human  nature. 

174.  It  was  probably  between  six  and  seven  in  the  morning 
when  they  conducted  Jesus,  bound  with  chains,  to  the  residence 
of  the  governor.  What  a  spectacle  that  was  !  The  priests, 
teachers,  and  judges  of  the  Jewish  nation  leading  their  Messiah 
to  ask  the  Gentile  to  put  Him  to  death  !  It  was  the  hour  of  the 
nation's  suicide.  This  was  all  that  had  come  of  God's  choosing 
them,  bearing  them  on  eagles'  wings  and  carrying  them  all  the 
days  of  old,  sending  them  His  prophets  and  deliverers,  redeeming 
them  from  Egypt  and  Babylon,  and  causing  His  glory  for  so 
many  centuries  to  pass  before  their  eyes  !  Surely  it  was  the  very 
mockery  of  Providence.  Yet  God  was  not  mocked.  His  designs 
march  down  through  history  with  resistless  tread,  waiting  not  on 
the  will  of  man ;  and  even  this  tragic  hour,  when  the  Jewish 
nation  was  turning  His  dealings  into  derision,  was  destined  to 
demonstrate  the  depths  of  His  wisdom  and  love. 

175.  The  man  before  whose  judgment-seat  Jesus  was  about  to 
appear  was  Pontius  Pilate,  who  had  been  governor  of  Judaea  for 
Z'x  years.     He  was  a  typical  Roman,  not  of  the  antique,  simple 


I20  THE  LIFE  OF  .TESUS  CHRIST. 

Stamp,  but  of  the  imperial  period;  a  man  not  without  some 
remains  of  the  ancient  Roman  justice  in  his  soul,  yet  pleasure- 
loving,  imperious,  and  corrupt.  He  hated  the  Jews  whom  he 
ruled,  and,  in  times  of  irritation,  freely  shed  their  blood.  They 
returned  his  hatred  with  cordiality,  and  accused  him  of  every 
crime, — maladministration,  cruelty,  and  robbery.  He  visited 
Jerusalem  as  seldom  as  possible ;  for,  indeed,  to  one  accustomed 
to  the  pleasures  of  Rome,  with  its  theatres,  baths,  games,  and  gay 
society,  Jerusalem,  with  its  religiousness  and  ever-smouldering 
revolt,  was  a  dreary  residence.  When  he  did  visit  it,  he  stayed 
in  the  magnificent  palace  of  Herod  the  Great ;  it  being  common 
for  the  officers  sent  by  Rome  into  conquered  countries  to  occupy 
the  palaces  of  the  displaced  sovereigns. 

176.  Up  the  broad  avenue,  which  led  through  a  fine  park,  laid 
out  with  walks,  ponds,  and  trees  of  various  kinds,  to  the  front  of 
the  building,  the  Sanhedrists  and  the  crowd  which  had  joined 
the  procession,  as  it  moved  on  through  the  streets,  conducted 
Jesus.  The  court  was  held  in  the  open  air,  on  a  mosaic  pave- 
ment in  front  of  that  portion  of  the  palace  which  united  its  two 
colossal  wings. 

177.  The  Jewish  authorities  had  hoped  that  Pilate  would  accept 
their  decision  as  his  own,  and  without  going  into  the  merits  of 
the  case,  pass  the  sentence  they  desired.  This  was  frequently 
done  by  provincial  governors,  especially  in  matters  of  religion, 
which  as  foreigners  they  could  not  be  expected  to  understand. 
Accordingly,  when  he  asked  what  the  crime  of  Jesus  was,  they 
replied,  *  If  He  were  not  a  malefactor,  we  would  not  have  delivered 
Him  up  unto  thee.'  But  he  was  not  in  the  mood  of  concession, 
and  told  them  that,  if  he  was  not  to  try  the  culprit,  they  must 
be  content  with  such  a  punishment  as  the  law  permitted  them 
to  inflict.  He  seems  to  have  known  something  of  Jesus.  '  He 
knew  that  for  envy  they  had  delivered  Him.'  The  triumphal 
procession  of  Sunday  was  sure  to  be  reported  to  him ;  and  the 
neglect  of  Jesus  to  make  use  of  that  demonstration  for  any 
political  end  may  have  convinced  him  that  He  was  politically 


THE  END.  121 

harmless.  His  wife's  dream  may  imply  that  He  had  been  the 
subject  of  conversation  in  the  palace;  and  perhaps  the  polite 
man  of  the  world  and  his  lady  had  felt  the  ennui  of  their  visit 
to  Jerusalem  relieved  by  the  story  of  the  young  peasant  enthu- 
siast who  was  bearding  the  fanatic  priests. 

178.  Forced  against  their  hopes  to  bring  forward  formal 
charges,  the  Jewish  authorities  poured  out  a  volley  of  accusa- 
tions, out  of  which  these  three  clearly  emerged, — that  He  had 
per\'erted  the  nation,  that  He  forbade  to  pay  the  Roman  tribute, 
and  that  He  set  Himself  up  as  a  king.  In  the  Sanhedrim  they 
had  condemned  Him  for  blasphemy  ;  but  such  a  charge  would 
have  been  treated  by  Pilate,  as  they  well  knew,  in  the  same  way 
as  it  was  afterwards  treated  by  the  Roman  governor  Gallio,  when 
preferred  against  Paul  by  the  Jews  of  Corinth.  They  had  there- 
fore to  invent  new  charges,  which  might  represent  Jesus  as 
formidable  to  the  government.  It  is  humiliating  to  think  that, 
in  doing  so,  they  resorted  not  only  to  gross  hypocrisy,  but  even 
to  deliberate  falsehood ;  for  how  else  can  we  characterise  the 
second  charge,  when  we  remember  the  answer  He  gave  to  their 
question  on  the  same  subject  on  the  previous  Tuesday  ? 

179.  Pilate  understood  their  pretended  zeal  for  the  Roman 
authority.  He  knew  the  value  of  this  vehement  anxiety  that 
Rome's  tribute  should  be  paid.  Rising  from  his  seat  to  escape 
the  fanatical  cries  of  the  mob,  he  took  Jesus  inside  the  palace  to 
examine  Him.  It  was  a  solemn  moment  for  himself,  though  he 
knew  it  not.  What  a  terrible  fate  it  was  which  brought  him  to 
this  spot  at  this  time  !  There  were  hundreds  of  Roman  officials 
scattered  over  the  empire,  conducting  their  lives  on  the  same 
principles  as  his  was  guided  by  ;  why  did  it  fall  to  him  to  bring 
them  to  bear  on  this  case  ?  He  had  no  idea  of  the  issues  he  was 
deciding.  The  culprit  may  have  seemed  to  him  a  little  more 
interesting  and  perplexing  than  others  ;  but  He  was  only  one  of 
hundreds  constantly  passing  through  his  hands.  It  could  not 
occur  to  him  that,  though  he  appeared  to  be  the  judge,  yet  both 
he  and  the  system  he  represented  v/ere  on  their  trial  before  One 


122  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

whose  perfection  judged  and  exposed  every  man  and  every  system 
which  approached  Him.  He  questioned  Him  in  regard  to  the 
accusations  brought  against  Him,  asking  especially  if  He  pre- 
tended to  be  a  king.  Jesus  replied  that  He  made  no  such  claim 
in  the  political  sense,  but  only  in  a  spiritual  sense,  as  King  of  the 
Truth.  This  reply  would  have  arrested  any  of  the  nobler  spirits 
of  heathendom,  who  spent  their  lives  in  the  search  for  truth,  and 
was  perhaps  framed  in  order  to  find  out  whether  there  was  any 
response  in  Pilate's  mind  to  such  a  suggestion.  But  he  had  no 
such  cravings  and  dismissed  it  with  a  laugh.  However,  he  was 
convinced  that,  as  he  had  supposed,  there  lurked  nothing  ot  the 
demagogue  or  Messianic  revolutionist  behind  this  pure,  peaceful, 
and  melancholy  face;  and,  returning  to  the  tribunal,  he  announced 
to  His  accusers  that  he  had  acquitted  Him. 

180.  The  announcement  was  received  with  shrieks  oi  dis- 
appointed rage  and  the  loud  reiteration  of  the  charges  against 
Him.  It  was  a  thoroughly  Jewish  spectacle.  Many  a  time  had 
this  fanatical  mob  overcome  the  wishes  and  decisions  of  theif 
foreign  masters  by  the  sheer  force  of  clamour  and  pertinacity. 
Pilate  ought  at  once  to  have  released  and  protected  Him.  But 
he  was  a  true  son  of  the  system  in  which  he  had  been  brought 
up — the  statecraft  of  compromise  and  manoeuvre.  Amidst  the 
cries  with  which  they  assailed  his  ears  he  was  glad  to  hear  one 
which  offered  him  an  excuse  for  getting  rid  of  the  whole  busi- 
ness. They  were  shouting  that  Jesus  had  excited  the  populace 
'  throughout  all  Jewry,  beginning  from  Galilee  unto  this  place.' 
It  occurred  to  him  that  Herod,  the  ruler  of  Galilee,  was  in  town, 
and  that  he  might  get  rid  of  the  troublesome  affair  by  handing  it 
over  to  him ;  for  it  was  a  common  procedure  in  Roman  law  to 
transfer  a  culprit  from  the  tribunal  of  the  territory  in  which  he 
was  arrested  to  that  of  the  territory  in  which  he  was  domiciled. 
Accordingly,  he  sent  Him  away  in  the  hands  of  his  body- 
guard, and  accompanied  by  His  indefatigable  accusers,  to  the 
palace  of  Herod. 

181.  They  found  this  princeling,  who  had  come  to  Jerusalem 


THE  END.  123 

to  attend  the  feast,  in  the  midst  of  his  petty  court  of  flatterers 
and  boon  companions,  and  surrounded  by  the  bodyguard  which 
he  maintained  in  imitation  of  his  foreign  masters.  He  was 
delighted  to  see  Jesus,  whose  fame  had  so  long  been  ring- 
ing through  the  territory  over  which  he  ruled.  He  was  a 
typical  Oriental  prince,  who  had  only  one  thought  in  life — his 
own  pleasure  and  amusement.  He  came  up  to  the  Passover 
merely  for  the  sake  of  the  excitement.  The  appearance  of 
Jesus  seemed  to  promise  a  new  sensation,  of  which  he  and  his 
court  were  often  sorely  in  want  ;  for  he  hoped  to  see  Him  work 
a  miracle.  He  was  a  man  utterly  incapable  of  taking  a  serious 
view  of  anything,  and  even  overlooked  the  business  about  which 
the  Jews  were  so  eager,  for  he  began  to  pour  out  a  flood  of 
rambling  questions  and  remarks,  without  pausing  for  any  reply. 
At  last,  however,  he  exhausted  himself,  and  waited  for  the 
response  of  Jesus.  But  he  waited  iii  vain,  for  Jesus  did  not 
vouchsafe  him  one  word  of  any  kind.  Herod  had  forgotten  the 
murder  of  the  Baptist,  every  impression  being  written  as  if  on 
water  in  his  characterless  mind  ;  but  Jesus  had  not  forgotten  it. 
He  felt  that  Herod  should  have  been  ashamed  to  look  the  Baptist's 
friend  in  the  face ;  He  would  not  stoop  even  to  speak  to  a 
man  who  could  treat  Him  as  a  mere  wonder-worker,  who  might 
purchase  his  judge's  favour  by  exhibiting  his  skill  ;  He  looked 
with  sad  shame  on  one  who  had  abused  himself  till  there  was 
no  conscience  or  manliness  left  in  him.  But  Herod  was  utterly 
incapable  of  feeling  the  annihilating  force  of  such  silent  dis- 
dain. He  and  his  men  of  war  set  Jesus  at  nought,  and, 
throwing  over  His  shoulders  a  white  robe,  in  imitation  of  that 
worn  at  Rome  by  candidates  who  were  canvassing  for  office, 
to  indicate  that  He  was  a  candidate  for  the  Jewish  throne,  but 
one  so  ridiculous  that  it  would  be  useless  to  treat  Him  with 
anything  but  contempt,  sent  Him  back  to  Pilate.  In  this 
guise  He  retraced  His  weary  steps  to  the  tribunal  of  the 
Roman. 
182.  Then  ensued  a  course  of  procedure  on  the  part  of  Pilate 


124  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

by  which  he  made  himself  an  image  of  the  time-server,  to  be 
exhibited  to  the  centuries  in  the  Hght  faUing  on  him  from 
Christ.  It  was  evidently  his  duty,  when  Jesus  returned  from 
Herod,  to  pronounce  at  once  the  sentence  of  acquittal.  But, 
instead  of  doing  so,  he  resorted  to  expediency,  and,  being  hurried 
on  from  one  false  step  to  another,  was  finally  hurled  down  the 
slope  of  complete  treachery  to  principle.  He  proposed  to  the 
Jews  that,  as  both  he  and  Herod  had  found  Him  innocent,  he 
should  scourge  and  then  release  Him  ;  the  scourging  being  a 
sop  to  their  rage,  and  the  release  a  tribute  to  justice. 

183.  The  carrying  out  of  this  monstrous  proposal  was,  how- 
ever, interrupted  by  an  incident  which  seemed  to  offer  to  Pilate 
once  more  a  way  of  escape  from  his  difficulty.  It  was  the 
custom  of  the  Roman  governor  on  Passover  morning  to  release 
to  the  people  any  single  prisoner  they  might  desire.  It  was  a 
privilege  highly  prized  by  the  populace  of  Jerusalem,  for  there 
were  always  in  jail  plenty  of  prisoners  who,  by  rebellion  against 
the  detested  foreign  yoke,  had  made  themselves  the  heroes  of 
the  multitude.  At  this  stage  of  the  trial  of  Jesus,  the  mob  of 
the  city,  pouring  from  street  and  alley  in  the  excited  Oriental 
fashion,  came  streaming  iip  the  avenue  to  the  front  of  the 
palace,  shouting  for  this  annual  gift.  The  cry  was  for  once 
welcome  to  Pilate,  for  he  saw  in  it  a  loophole  of  escape  from 
his  disagreeable  position.  It  turned  out,  however,  to  be  a  noose 
through  which  he  was  slipping  his  neck.  He  offered  the  life  of 
Jesus  to  the  mob.  For  a  moment  they  hesitated.  But  they  had 
a  favourite  of  their  own,  a  noted  leader  of  revolt  against  the 
Roman  domination ;  and  besides,  voices  instantly  began  to 
whisper  busily  in  their  ears,  putting  every  art  of  persuasion  into 
exercise  in  order  to  induce  them  not  to  accept  Jesus.  The 
Sanhedrists,  in  spite  of  the  zeal  they  had  manifested  the 
hour  before  for  law  and  order,  did  not  scruple  thus  to  take  the 
side  of  the  champion  of  sedition  ;  and  they  succeeded  only  too 
well  in  poisoning  the  minds  of  the  populace,  who  began  to  shout 
for  their  own  hero,  Barabbas.      'What,  then,  shall  I  do  with 


THE  END.  125 

Jcsiis?'  nsked  Pilate,  cxpcctin^^  them  to  answer,  'Give  us  Him 
too.'  BlU  he  was  mistaken  ;  the  authorities  had  done  their  work 
successfully  ;  the  cry  came  from  ten  thousand  throats,  '  Let  Him 
be  crucified  ! '  Like  priests,  like  people  ;  it  was  the  ratification 
by  the  nation  of  the  decision  of  its  heads.  Pilate,  completely 
baffled,  angrily  asked,  ' Why,  what  evil  hath  He  done.?'  But 
he  had  put  the  decision  into  their  power  ;  they  were  now 
tlioroughly  fanaticized,  and  yelled  forth,  'Away  with  Him; 
crucify  Him,  crucify  Him  ! ' 

184.  Pilate  did  not  yet  mean  to  sacrifice  justice  utterly.  He 
had  still  a  move  in  reserve  ;  but  in  the  meantime  he  sent  away 
Jesus  to  be  scourged — the  usual  preliminary  to  crucifixion.  The 
soldiers  took  Him  to  a  room  in  their  barracks,  and  feasted 
their  cruel  instincts  on  His  sufferings.  We  will  not  describe 
the  shame  and  pain  of  this  revolting  punishment.  What  must 
it  have  been  to  Him,  with  His  honour  and  love  for  human 
nature,  to  be  handled  by  those  coarse  men,  and  to  look  so 
closely  at  human  nature's  uttermost  brutality  !  The  soldiers 
enjoyed  their  work  and  heaped  insult  upon  cruelty.  When 
the  scourging  was  over,  they  set  Him  down  on  a  seat,  and, 
fetching  an  old  cast-off  cloak,  flung  it,  in  derisive  imitation  of 
the  royal  purple,  on  His  shoulders ;  they  thrust  a  reed  into 
Ilis  hands  for  a  sceptre;  they  stripped  some  thorn-twigs  from 
a  neighbouring  bush,  and,  twining  them  into  the  rough  sem- 
blance of  a  crown,  crushed  down  their  rending  spikes  upon 
His  brow.  Then,  passing  in  front  of  Him,  each  of  them  in 
turn  bent  the  knee,  while,  at  the  same  time,  he  spat  in  His 
face,  and,  plucking  the  reed  from  His  hand,  smote  Him  with  it 
over  the  head  and  face. 

185.  At  last,  having  glutted  their  cruelty,  they  led  Him  back  to 
the  tribunal,  wearing  the  crown  of  thorns  and  the  purple  robe.  The 
crowds  raised  shouts  of  mad  laughter  at  the  soldiers'  joke  ;  and, 
with  a  sneer  on  his  face,  Pilate  thrust  him  forward,  so  as  to  meet 
the  gaze  of  all,  and  cried,  '  Behold  the  man  !'  He  meant  that 
surely  there  was  no  use  of  doing  any  more  to  Him  ;  He  was  not 


126  THE  HFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

worth  their  vliile ;  could  one  so  broken  and  wretched  do  any 
harm  ?  How  little  he  understood  his  own  words  !  That  '  Ecce 
Homo'  of  his  sounds  over  the  world  and  draws  the  eyes  of  all 
generations  to  that  marred  visage.  And  lo,  as  we  look,  the 
shame  is  gone  ;  it  has  lifted  off  Him  and  fallen  on  Pilate  himself, 
on  the  soldiery,  the  priests,  and  the  mob.  His  outflashing  glory 
has  scorched  away  every  speck  of  disgrace,  and  tipped  the  crown 
of  thorns  with  a  hundred  points  of  flaming  brightness.  But  just 
as  little  did  Pilate  understand  the  temper  of  the  people  he  ruled, 
ivhen  he  supposed  that  the  sight  of  the  misery  and  helplessness 
of  Jesus  would  satisfy  their  thirst  for  vengeance.  Their  objection 
to  Him  all  along  had  been  that  one  so  poor  and  unambitious 
should  claim  to  be  their  Messiah  ;  and  the  sight  of  Him  now, 
scourged  and  scorned  by  the  alien  soldiery,  yet  still  claiming  to 
be  their  King,  raised  their  hate  to  madness,  so  that  they  cried 
louder  than  ever,  *  Crucify  Him,  crucify  Him  !' 

1 86.  Now  at  last,  too,  they  gave  vent  to  the  real  charge  against 
Him,  which  had  all  along  been  burning  at  the  bottom  of  their 
hearts,  and  which  they  could  no  longer  suppress  :  *  We  have  a 
law,'  they  cried,  'and  by  that  law  He  ought  to  die,  because  He 
made  Himself  the  Son  of  God.'  But  these  words  struck  a 
chord  in  Pilate's  mind  which  they  had  not  thought  of.  In 
the  ancient  traditions  of  his  native  land  there  were  many 
legends  of  sons  of  the  gods,  who  in  the  days  of  old  had 
walked  the  earth  in  humble  guise,  so  that  they  were  indis- 
tinguishable from  common  men.  It  was  dangerous  to  meet 
them,  for  an  injury  done  them  might  bring  down  on  the  offender 
the  wrath  of  the  gods,  their  sires.  Faith  in  these  antique  myths 
had  long  died  out,  because  no  men  were  seen  on  earth  so 
different  from  their  neighbours  as  to  require  such  an  explanation. 
But  in  Jesus  Pilate  had  discerned  an  inexplicable  something  which 
affected  him  with  a  vague  terror.  And  now  the  words  of  the  mob, 
*  He  made  Himself  the  Son  of  God,'  came  like  a  flash  of  light- 
ning. They  brought  back  out  of  the  recesses  of  his  memory  the 
old,  forgotten  stories  of  his  childhood,  and  revived  the  heathen 


THE  END.  127 

terror,  which  forms  the  theme  of  some  of  the  greatest  Greek 
dramas,  of  committing  unawares  a  crime  which  might  evoke  the 
dire  vengeance  of  Heaven.  Might  not  Jesus  be  the  Son  of  the 
Hebrew  Jehovah — so  his  heathen  mind  reasoned — as  Castor  and 
Pollux  were  the  sons  of  Jupiter  ?  He  hastily  took  Him  inside  the 
palace  again,  and,  looking  at  Him  with  new  awe  and  curiosity, 
asked,  '  Whence  art  Thou  ?'  But  Jesus  answered  him  not  one 
word.  Pilate  had  not  listened  to  Him  when  He  wished  to  explain 
everything  to  him  ;  he  had  outraged  his  own  sense  of  justice  by 
scourging  Him  ;  and  if  a  man  turns  his  back  on  Christ  when  He 
speaks,  the  hour  will  come  when  he  will  ask  and  receive  no 
answer.  The  proud  governor  was  both  surprised  and  irritated, 
and  demanded,  *  Speakest  Thou  not  to  me  ?  Knowest  Thou  not 
that  I  have  power  to  crucify  Thee,  and  have  power  to  release 
Thee  ?'  to  which  Jesus  answered  with  the  indescribable  dignity 
of  which  the  brutal  shame  of  His  torture  had  in  no  way  robbed 
II im,  '  Thou  couldest  have  no  power  at  all  against  Me,  except  it 
were  given  thee  from  above.' 

187.  Pilate  had  boasted  of  his  power  to  do  what  he  chose  with 
his  prisoner ;  but  he  was  in  reality  very  weak.  He  came  forth 
from  his  private  interview  determined  at  once  to  release  Him. 
The  Jews  saw  it  in  his  face  ;  and  it  made  them  bring  out  their  last 
weapon,  which  they  had  all  along  been  keeping  in  reserve :  they 
threatened  to  complain  against  him  to  the  emperor.  This  was 
the  meaning  of  the  cry  with  which  they  interrupted  his  first  words, 
*  If  thou  let  this  man  go,  thou  art  not  Caesar's  friend.*  This  had 
been  in  both  their  minds  and  his  all  through  the  trial.  It  was 
this  which  made  him  so  irresolute.  There  was  nothing  a  Roman 
governor  dreaded  so  much  as  a  complaint  against  him  sent  by 
his  subjects  to  the  emperor.  At  this  time  it  was  specially  peril- 
ous ;  for  the  imperial  throne  was  occupied  by  a  morbid  and 
suspicious  tyrant,  who  delighted  in  disgracing  his  own  servants, 
and  would  kindle  in  a  moment  at  the  whisper  of  any  of  his  sub- 
ordinates favouring  a  pretender  to  royal  power.  Pilate  knew  too 
well  that  his  administration  could  not  bear  inspection,  for  it  had 


128  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

been  cruel  and  corrupt  in  the  extreme.  Nothing  is  able  so 
peremptorily  to  forbid  a  man  to  do  the  good  he  would  do  as  the 
evil  of  his  past  life.  This  was  the  blast  of  temptation  which 
finally  swept  Pilate  off  his  feet,  just  when  he  had  made  up  his 
mind  to  obey  his  conscience.  He  was  no  hero,  who  would  obey 
his  convictions  at  any  cost.  He  was  a  thorough  man  of  the  world, 
and  saw  at  once  that  he  must  surrender  Jesus  to  their  will. 

1 88.  However,  he  was  full  not  only  ot  rage  at  being  so  com- 
pletely foiled,  but  also  of  an  overpowering  religious  dread. 
Calling  for  water,  he  washed  his  hands  in  the  presence  of  the 
multitude,  and  cried,  '  I  am  innocent  of  the  blood  of  this  just 
Person.'  He  washed  his  hands  when  he  should  have  exerted 
them.  Blood  is  not  so  easily  washed  off.  But  the  mob,  now 
completely  triumphant,  derided  his  scruples,  rending  the  air  with 
the  cry,  '  His  blood  be  upon  us  and  on  our  children  !' 

189.  Pilate  felt  the  insult  keenly,  and,  turning  on  them  in  his 
r.nger,  determined  that  he  too  should  have  his  triumph.  Thrusting 
Jesus  forward  more  prominently  into  view,  he  began  to  mock 
them  by  pretending  to  regard  Him  as  really  their  king,  and  ask- 
ing, '  Shall  I  crucify  your  king  ?'  It  was  now  their  turn  to  feel  the 
sting  of  mockery ;  and  they  cried  out,  '  We  have  no  king  but 
Caesar.'  What  a  confession  from  Jewish  lips  !  It  was  the  sur- 
render of  the  freedom  and  the  history  of  the  nation.  Pilate  took 
them  at  their  word,  and  forthwith  handed  Jesus  over  to  be 
crucified. 

190.  The  Crucifixion. — They  had  succeeded  in  wresting  their 
victim  from  Pilate's  unwilling  hands,  'and  they  took  Jesus  and 
led  Him  away.'  At  length  they  were  able  to  gratify  their  hatred 
to  the  uttermost,  and  they  hurried  Him  off  to  the  place  of 
execution  with  every  demonstration  of  inhuman  triumph.  The 
actual  executioners  were  the  soldiers  of  the  governor's  guard  ; 
but  in  moral  significance  the  deed  belonged  entirely  to  the 
Jewish  authorities.  They  could  not  leave  it  in  charge  of  the 
millions  of  the  law  to  whom  it  belonged,  but  with  undignified 


THE  END.  129 

eagerness  headed  the  procession  themselves,  in  order  to  feast 
their  vindictiveness  on  the  sight  of  His  sufferings. 

191.  It  must  by  this  time  have  been  about  ten  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  The  crowd  at  the  palace  had  been  gradually  swelling. 
As  the  fatal  procession,  headed  by  the  Sanhedrists,  passed  on 
through  the  streets,  it  attracted  great  multitudes.  It  happened 
to  be  a  Passover  holiday,  so  that  there  were  thousands  of  idlers, 
prepared  for  any  excitement.  All  those  especially  who  had  been 
inoculated  with  the  fanaticism  of  the  authorit^s  poured  forth 
to  witness  the  execution.  It  was  therefore  through  the  midst  of 
myriads  of  cruel  and  unsympathizing  onlookers  that  Jesus  went 
to  His  death. 

192.  The  spot  where  He  suff"ered  cannot  now  be  identified.  It 
was  outside  the  gates  of  the  city,  and  was  doubtless  the  common 
place  of  execution.  It  is  usually  called  Mount  Calvary,  but  there 
is  nothing  in  the  Gospels  to  justify  such  a  name,  nor  does  there 
seem  to  be  any  hill  in  the  neighbourhood  on  which  it  could  have 
taken  place.  The  name  Golgotha,  '  place  of  a  skull,'  may  signify 
a  skull-like  knoll,  but  more  probably  refers  to  the  ghastly  relics 
of  the  tragedies  happening  there  that  might  be  lying  about.  It 
was  probably  a  wide,  open  space,  in  which  a  multitude  of  specta- 
tors might  assemble  ;  and  it  appears  to  have  been  on  the  side 
of  a  much  frequented  thoroughfare,  for,  besides  the  stationary 
spectators,  there  were  others  passing  to  and  fro  who  joined  in 
mocking  the  Sufferer. 

193.  Crucifixion  was  an  unspeakably  horrible  death.  As 
Cicero,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  it,  says,  it  was  the  most 
cruel  and  shameful  of  all  punishments.  '  Let  it  never,'  he  adds, 
*  come  near  the  body  of  a  Roman  citizen  ;  nay,  not  even  near 
his  thoughts,  or  eyes,  or  ears.'  It  was  reserved  for  slaves  and 
revolutionaries  whose  end  was  meant  to  be  marked  with  special 
infamy.  Nothing  could  be  more  unnatural  and  revolting  than 
to  suspend  a  living  man  in  such  a  position.  The  idea  of  it 
seems  to  have  been  suggested  by  the  practice  of  nailing  up 
vermin  in  a  kind  of  revengeful  merriment  on  some  exposed  place. 


130  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Had  the  end  come  with  the  first  strokes  in  the  wounds,  it  would 
still  have  been  an  awful  death.  But  the  victim  usually  lingered 
two  or  three  days,  with  the  burning  pain  of  the  nails  in  his  hands 
and  feet,  the  torture  of  overcharged  veins,  and,  worst  of  all,  his 
intolerable  thirst,  constantly  increasing.  It  was  impossible  to 
help  moving  the  body  so  as  to  get  relief  from  each  new  attitude 
of  pain  ;  yet  every  movement  brought  new  and  excruciating 
agony. 

194.  But  we  gladly  turn  away  from  the  awful  sight,  to  think 
how  by  His  strength  of  soul,  His  resignation,  and  His  love, 
Jesus  triumphed  over  the  shame,  the  cruelty,  and  horror  of 
it ;  and  how,  as  the  sunset  with  its  crimson  glory  makes  even 
the  putrid  pool  burn  like  a  shield  of  gold  and  drenches  with 
brilliance  the  vilest  object  held  up  against  its  beams.  He  con- 
verted the  symbol  of  slavery  and  wickedness  into  a  symbol 
for  whatever  is  most  pure  and  glorious  in  the  world.  The 
bead  hung  free  in  crucifixion,  so  that  He  was  able  not  only 
to  see  what  was  going  on  beneath  Him,  but  also  to  speak. 
He  uttered  seven  sentences  at  intervals,  which  have  been  pre- 
served to  us.  They  are  seven  windows  by  which  we  can  still 
look  into  His  very  mind  and  heart,  and  learn  the  impressions 
made  on  Him  by  what  was  happening.  They  show  that  He 
retained  unimpaired  the  serenity  and  majesty  which  had 
characterised  Him  throughout  His  trial,  and  exhibited  in  their 
fullest  exercise  all  the  qualities  which  had  already  made  His 
character  illustrious.  He  triumphed  over  His  sufferings  not  by 
the  cold  severity  of  a  Stoic,  but  by  self-forgetting  love.  When 
He  was  fainting  beneath  the  burden  of  the  cross  in  the  Via 
Dolorosa,  He  forgot  His  fatigue  in  His  anxiety  for  the  daughters 
of  Jerusalem  and  their  children.  When  they  were  nailing  Him 
to  the  tree,  He  was  absorbed  in  a  prayer  for  His  murderers.  He 
quenched  the  pain  of  the  first  hours  of  crucifixion  by  His  interest 
in  the  penitent  thief  and  His  care  to  provide  a  new  home  for  His 
mother.  He  never  was  more  completely  Himself — the  absolutely 
unselfish  Worker  for  others. 


THE  END.  131 

195.  It  was,  indeed,  only  through  His  love  that  He  could  be 
deeply  wounded.  His  physical  sufferings,  though  intense  and 
prolonged,  were  not  greater  than  have  been  borne  by  many  other 
sufferers,  unless  the  exquisiteness  of  His  bodily  organism  may 
have  heightened  them  to  a  degree  which  to  other  men  is  incon- 
ceivable. He  did  not  linger  more  than  five  hours — a  space  of 
time  so  much  briefer  than  usual,  that  the  soldiers,  who  were  about 
to  break  His  legs,  were  surprised  to  find  Him  already  dead.  His 
worst  sufferings  were  those  of  the  mind.  He  whose  very  life  was 
love,  who  thirsted  for  love  as  the  hart  pants  for  the  water-brooks, 
was  encircled  with  a  sea  of  hatred  and  of  dark,  bitter,  hellish 
passion,  that  surged  round  Him  and  flung  up  its  waves  about  His 
cross.  His  soul  was  spotlessly  pure  ;  holiness  was  its  very  life  ; 
but  sin  pressed  itself  against  it,  endeavouring  to  force  upon 
it  its  loathsome  contact,  from  which  it  shrank  through  every 
fibre.  The  members  of  the  Sanhedrim  took  the  lead  in  venting 
on  Him  every  possible  expression  of  contempt  and  malicious 
hate,  and  the  populace  faithfully  followed  their  example.  These 
were  the  men  He  had  loved  and  still  loved  with  an  unquenchable 
passion  ;  and  they  insulted,  crushed,  and  trampled  on  His  love. 
Through  their  lips  the  Evil  One  reiterated  again  and  again  the 
temptation  by  which  He  had  been  all  His  life  assaulted,  to  save 
Himself  and  win  the  faith  of  the  nation  by  some  display  of 
supernatural  power  made  for  His  own  advantage.  That  seething 
mass  of  human  beings,  whose  faces,  distorted  with  passion,  glared 
upon  Him,  was  an  epitome  of  the  wickedness  of  the  human  race. 
His  eyes  had  to  look  down  on  it,  and  its  coarseness,  its  sadness, 
its  dishonour  of  God,  its  exhibition  of  the  shame  of  human  nature 
were  like  a  sheaf  of  spears  gathered  in  His  breast. 

196.  There  was  a  still  more  mysterious  woe.  Not  only  did 
the  world's  sin  thus  press  itself  on  His  loving  and  holy  soul  in 
those  near  Him  ;  it  came  from  afar, — from  the  past,  the  distant, 
and  the  future, — and  met  on  Him.  He  was  bearing  the  sin  of 
the  world  ;  and  the  consuming  fire  of  God's  nature,  which  is 
the  reverse  side  of  the  light  of  His  holiness  and  love,  flamed 


132  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

forth  against  Him,  to  scorch  it  away.  So  it  pleased  the  Lord 
to  put  Him  to  grief,  when  He  who  knew  no  sin  was  made  siri 
for  us, 

197.  Tliese  were  the  sufferings  which  made  the  cross  appal- 
ling. After  some  two  hours,  He  withdrew  Himself  completely 
from  the  outer  world  and  turned  His  face  towards  the  eternal 
world.  At  the  same  time  a  strange  darkness  overspread  the 
land,  and  Jerusalem  trembled  beneath  a  cloud  whose  murky 
shadows  looked  like  a  gathering  doom.  Golgotha  was  well-nigh 
deserted.  He  hung  long  silent  amidst  the  darkness  without  and 
the  darkness  within,  till  at  length,  out  of  the  depths  of  an  anguish 
which  human  thought  will  never  fathom,  there  issued  the  cry, 
'  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  Thou  forsaken  Me?'  It  was  the 
moment  when  the  soul  of  the  Sufferer  touched  the  very  bottom 
of  His  misery. 

198.  But  the  darkness  passed  from  the  landscape  and  the  sun 
shone  forth  again.  The  spirit  of  Christ,  too,  emerged  from  its 
eclipse.  With  the  strength  of  victory  won  in  the  final  struggle, 
He  cried,  '  It  is  finished ! '  and  then,  with  perfect  serenity, 
breathed  out  His  life  on  a  verse  of  a  favourite  psalm  :  *  Father, 
into  Thy  hands  I  commend  My  spirit.' 

199.  The  Eesurrection  and  Ascension.  —  There  never  was  an 
enterprise  in  the  world  which  seemed  more  completely  at  an  end 
than  did  that  of  Jesus  on  the  last  Old  Testament  Sabbath. 
Christianity  died  with  Christ,  and  was  laid  with  Him  in  the 
sepulchre.  It  is  true  that  when,  looking  back  at  this  distance, 
we  see  the  stone  rolled  to  the  mouth  of  the  tomb,  we  experience 
little  emotion  ;  for  we  are  in  the  secret  of  Providence  and  know 
what  is  going  to  happen.  But  when  He  was  buried,  there  was 
not  a  single  human  being  that  believed  He  would  ever  rise  again 
before  the  day  of  the  world's  doom. 

200.  The  Jewish  authorities  were  thoroughly  satisfied  of  this. 
Death  ends  all  controversies,  and  it  had  settled  the  one  between 
Him  and  them  triumphantly  in   their  favour.      He   had    put 


THE  END. 


^3$ 


Himself  forward  as  their  Messiah,  but  had  scarcely  any  of  the 
marks  which  they  looked  for  in  one  with  such  claims.  He 
had  never  received  any  important  national  recognition.  His 
followers  were  few  and  uninfluential.  His  career  had  been 
j^hort.  He  was  in  the  grave.  Nothing  more  was  to  be  thought 
of  Him. 

201.  The  breakdown  of  the  disciples  had  been  complete. 
When  He  was  arrested,  *  they  all  forsook  Him  and  fled.'  Peter, 
indeed,  followed  Him  to  the  high-priest's  palace,  but  only  to  fall 
more  ignominiously  than  the  rest.  John  followed  even  to  Gol- 
gotha, and  may  have  hoped  against  hope  that,  at  the  very  last 
moment,  He  might  descend  from  the  cross  to  ascend  the  Messi- 
anic throne.  But  even  the  last  moment  went  by  with  nothing 
done.  What  remained  for  them  but  to  return  to  their  homes  and 
their  fishing  as  disappointed  men,  who  would  be  twitted  during 
the  rest  of  their  lives  with  the  folly  of  following  a  pretender,  and 
asked  where  the  thrones  were  which  He  had  promised  to  scat 
ihem  on  ? 

202.  Jesus  had,  indeed,  foretold  His  sufferings,  death,  and 
resurrection.  But  they  never  understood  these  sayings  ;  they 
forgot  them  or  gave  them  an  allegorical  turn;  and,  when  He  was 
actually  dead,  these  yielded  them  no  comfort  whatever.  The 
women  came  to  the  sepulchre  on  the  first  Christian  Sabbath,  not 
to  see  it  empty,  but  to  embalm  His  body  for  its  long  sleep. 
Mary  ran  to  tell  the  disciples,  not  that  He  was  risen,  but  that 
the  body  had  been  taken  away  and  laid  she  knew  not  where. 
When  the  women  told  the  other  disciples  how  He  had  met  them, 
*  their  words  seemed  to  them  as  idle  tales  and  they  believed  them 
not.'  Peter  and  John,  as  John  himself  informs  us,  'knew  not 
the  Scripture,  that  He  should  rise  from  the  dead.'  Could  any- 
thing be  more  pathetic  than  the  words  of  the  two  travellers  to 
Emmaus,  'We  trusted  that  it  had  been  He  which  should  have 
redeemed  Israel'?  When  the  disciples  were  met  together,  'they 
mourned  and  wept.'  There  never  were  men  more  utterly  dis- 
appointed and  dispirited. 


134  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

203.  But  we  can  now  be  glad  that  they  were  so  sad.  They 
doubted  that  we  might  believe.  For  how  is  it  to  be  accounted 
for,  that  in  a  few  days  afterwards  these  very  men  were  full  of 
confidence  and  joy,  their  faith  in  Jesus  had  revived,  and  the 
enterprise  of  Christianity  was  again  in  motion  with  a  far  vaster 
vitality  than  it  had  ever  before  possessed  ?  They  say  the  reason 
of  this  was  that  Jesus  had  risen,  and  they  had  seen  Him.  They 
tell  us  about  their  visits  to  the  empty  tomb,  and  how  He  appeared 
to  Mary  Magdalene,  to  the  other  women,  to  Peter,  to  the  two  on 
the  way  to  Emmaus,  to  ten  of  them  at  once,  to  eleven  of  them  at 
once,  to  James,  to  the  five  hundred,  and  so  forth.  Are  these 
stories  credible  ?  They  might  not  be,  if  they  stood  alone.  But 
the  alleged  resurrection  of  Christ  was  accompanied  by  the  indis- 
putable resurrection  of  Christianity.  And  how  is  the  latter  to  be 
accounted  for  except  by  the  former?  It  might,  indeed,  be  said 
that  Jesus  had  filled  their  minds  with  imperial  dreams,  which 
He  failed  to  realize ;  and  that,  having  once  caught  sight  of  so 
magnificent  a  career,  they  were  unable  to  return  to  their  fish- 
ing-nets, and  so  invented  this  story,  in  order  to  carry  on  the 
scheme  on  their  own  account.  Or  it  might  be  said  that  they 
only  fancied  they  saw  what  they  tell  about  the  Risen  One.  But 
the  remarkable  thing  is  that,  when  they  resumed  their  faith  in 
Him,  they  were  found  to  be  no  longer  pursuing  worldly  ends,  but 
intensely  spiritual  ones ;  they  were  no  longer  expecting  thrones, 
but  persecution  and  death  ;  yet  they  addressed  themselves  to 
their  new  work  with  a  breadth  of  intelligence,  an  ardour  of 
devotion,  and  a  faith  in  results  which  they  had  never  shown 
before.  As  Christ  rose  from  the  dead  in  a  transfigured  body,  so 
did  Christianity.  It  had  put  off  its  carnality.  What  effected 
this  change  ?  They  say  it  was  the  resurrection  and  the  sight 
of  the  risen  Christ.  But  their  testimony  is  not  the  proof  that 
He  rose.  The  incontestable  proof  is  the  change  itself, — the  fact 
that  suddenly  they  had  become  courageous,  hopeful,  believing, 
v/ise,  possessed  with  noble  and  reasonable  views  of  the  world's 
future,  and  equipped  with  resources  sufficient  to  found  the  Church, 


THE  END.  135 

convert  the  world,  and  establish  Christianity  in  its  purity  among 
men.  Between  the  last  Old  Testament  Sabbath  and  the  time, 
a  few  weeks  afterwards,  when  this  stupendous  change  had  un- 
deniably taken  place,  some  event  must  have  intervened  which 
can  be  regarded  as  a  sufficient  cause  for  so  great  an  effect.  The 
resurrection  alone  answers  the  exigencies  of  the  problem,  and 
is  therefore  proved  by  a  demonstration  far  more  cogent  than 
perhaps  any  testimony  could  be.  It  is  a  happy  thing  that  this 
event  is  capable  of  such  a  proof;  for,  if  Christ  be  not  risen,  our 
faith  is  vain  ;  but  if  He  be  risen,  then  the  whole  of  His  miraculous 
life  becomes  credible,  for  this  was  the  greatest  of  all  the  miracles; 
His  divine  mission  is  demonstrated,  for  it  must  have  been  God 
who  raised  Him  up  ;  and  the  most  assuring  glance  which  history 
affords  is  given  into  the  realities  of  the  eternal  world. 

204.  The  risen  Christ  lingered  on  earth  long  enough  fully  to 
satisfy  His  adherents  of  the  truth  of  His  resurrection.  They  were 
not  easily  convinced.  The  apostles  treated  the  reports  of  the 
holy  women  with  scornful  incredulity ;  Thomas  doubted  the 
testimony  of  the  other  apostles  ;  and  some  of  the  five  hundred  to 
whom  He  appeared  on  a  Galilean  mountain  doubted  their  own 
eyesight,  and  only  believed  when  they  heard  His  voice.  The 
loving  patience  with  which  He  treated  these  doubters  showed 
that,  though  His  bodily  appearance  was  somewhat  changed,  He 
was  still  the  same  in  heart  as  ever.  This  was  pathetically  shown 
too  by  the  places  which  He  visited  in  His  glorified  form.  They 
were  the  old  haunts  where  He  had  prayed  and  preached,  laboured 
and  suffered, — the  Galilean  mountain,  the  well-beloved  lake,  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  the  village  of  Bethany,  and,  above  all,  Jerusalem, 
the  fatal  city  which  had  murdered  her  own  Son,  but  which  He 
could  not  cease  to  love. 

205.  Yet  there  were  obvious  indications  that  He  belonged  r.o 
more  to  this  lower  world.  There  was  a  new  reserve  about  His 
risen  humanity.  He  forbade  Mary  to  touch  Him,  when  slic 
would  have  kissed  His  feet.  He  appeared  in  the  midst  of  His 
own  with  mysterious  suddenness,  and  just  as  suddenly  vanished 


136  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

out  of  sight.  He  was  only  now  and  then  in  their  company,  no 
longer  according  them  the  constant  and  familiar  intercourse  of 
former  days.  At  length,  at  the  end  of  forty  days,  when  the 
purpose  for  which  He  had  lingered  on  earth  was  fully  accom- 
plished and  the  apostles  were  ready  in  the  power  of  their  new 
joy  to  bear  to  all  nations  the  tidings  of  His  life  and  work,  His 
glorified  humanity  was  received  up  into  that  world  to  which  it 
rightfully  belonged. 


CONCLUSION. 

No  life  ends  even  for  this  world  when  the  body  by  which  it 
has  for  a  little  been  made  visible  disappears  from  the  face  of  the 
earth.  It  enters  into  the  stream  of  the  ever-swelling  life  of  man- 
kind, and  continues  to  act  there  with  its  whole  force  for  evermore. 
Indeed,  the  true  magnitude  of  a  human  being  can  often  only  be 
measured  by  what  this  after-life  shows  him  to  have  been.  So  it 
was  with  Christ.  The  modest  narrative  of  the  Gospels  scarcely 
prepares  us  for  the  outburst  of  creative  force  which  issued  from 
Mis  life  when  it  appeared  to  have  ended.  His  influence  on  the 
modern  world  is  the  evidence  of  how  great  He  was  ;  for  there 
must  have  been  in  the  cause  as  much  as  there  is  in  the  effect.  It 
lias  overspread  the  life  of  man  and  caused  it  to  blossom  with 
the  vigour  of  a  spiritual  spring.  It  has  absorbed  into  itself  all 
other  influences,  as  a  mighty  river,  pouring  along  the  centre  of 
a  continent,  receives  tributaries  from  a  hundred  hills.  And  its 
quality  has  been  even  more  exceptional  than  its  quantity. 

But  the  most  important  evidence  of  what  He  was,  is  to  be 
found  neither  in  the  general  history  of  modern  civilisation  nor  in 
the  public  history  of  the  visible  Church,  but  in  the  experiences  of 
the  succession  of  genuine  believers,  who  with  linked  hands  stretch 
back  to  touch  Him  through  the  Christian  generations.  The 
experience  of  myriads  of  souls,  redeemed  by  Him  from  them- 
selves and  from  the  world,  proves  that  history  was  cut  in  twain 
by  the  appearance  of  a  Regenerator,  who  was  not  a  mere  link  in 

137 


138  THE  l.IFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

the  chain  of  common  men,  but  One  whom  the  race  could  not 
from  its  own  resources  have  produced — the  perfect  Type,  the 
Man  of  men.  The  experience  of  myriads  of  consciences,  the 
most  sensitive  to  both  the  holiness  of  the  Divine  Being  and 
their  own  sinfulness  that  the  world  has  ever  seen,  yet  able  to 
rejoice  in  a  peace  with  God  which  has  been  found  the  most 
potent  motive  of  a  holy  life,  proves  that  in  the  midst  of  the  ages 
there  was  wrought  out  an  act  of  reconciliation  by  which  sinful 
men  may  be  made  one  with  a  holy  God.  The  experience  of 
myriads  of  minds,  rendered  blessed  by  the  vision  of  a  God  who 
to  the  eye  purified  by  the  Word  of  Christ  is  so  completely  Light 
that  in  Him  there  is  no  darkness  at  all,  proves  that  the  final 
revelation  of  the  Eternal  to  the  world  has  been  made  by  One  who 
knew  Him  so  well  that  He  could  not  Himself  have  been  less  than 
Divine. 

The  life  of  Christ  in  history  cannot  cease.  His  influence 
waxes  more  and  more  ;  the  dead  nations  are  waiting  till  it  reach 
them,  and  it  is  the  hope  of  the  earnest  spirits  that  are  bringing 
in  the  new  earth.  All  discoveries  of  the  modern  world,  every 
development  of  juster  ideas,  of  higher  powers,  of  more  exquisite 
feelings  in  mankind,  are  only  new  helps  to  interpret  Him ;  and 
the  lifting-up  of  life  to  the  level  of  His  ideas  and  character  is  the 
programme  of  the  human  race. 


HINTS  FOR  TEACHERS  AND  QUESTIONS  FOR 
PUPILS. 

It  will  be  observed  that  what  has  been  attempted  in  the  fore- 
going pages  has  been  to  throw  into  prominence  the  great  masses 
of  our  Lord's  life,  and  point  clearly  out  its  hinge-events,  details 
being  as  much  as  possible  curtailed.  These  details  are  more 
popularly  known  than  any  other  part  of  human  knowledge  ; 
what  most  readers  of  the  Gospels  need  is  a  scheme  let  down  on 
the  details,  in  whose  divisions  they  will  naturally  arrange  them- 
selves, so  that  the  life  may  present  itself  to  the  eye  as  a  whole  ; 
and  an  endeavour  has  here  been  made  to  supply  this  want.  But 
in  a  Bible-class  course  extending  beyond  twelve  or  fifteen  lessons, 
more  of  the  details  might  be  introduced  with  advantage.  There 
is  therefore  subjoined  the  outline  of  a  more  extended  course, 
along  with  a  few  questions  on  the  text  intended  to  stimulate 
pupils  to  further  thought  and  inquiry.*^ 

'As  a  teacher's  apparatus  I  would  recommend— (i)  Andrews' ^/<^/i; 
S/udai/'s  Life  of  otir  Lord,  an  unpretentious  but  excellent  book,  in  which 
the  apologetic  difficulties  in  the  details  of  the  life  are  treated  with  much 
candour  and  success  ;  (2)  Neander's  Life  of  Christ  (Bohn  series),  the  best 
life,  in  my  opinion,  yet  published,  though  sadly  marred  by  too  great 
concessions  to  the  spirit  of  denial,  which  had  reached  its  climax  in 
Germany  at  the  time  when  it  was  written  ;  and  (3)  Farrar's  well-known 
Life,  which  will  lend  vividness  to  the  teacher's  remarks.  These  books, 
along  with  a  good  Commentary  on  the  Gospels,  a  Harmony  of  the  Gospels, 
and  a  Handbook  of  Bible  Geography,  are  sufficient.  Eugene  Stock's 
Lessons  on  the  Life  of  our  Lord  are  familiar  to  Sabbath-school  teachers. 

139 


140  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


Preliminary. 

1.  Cliaracteristics  of  the  Four  Gospels. — MailJtcw—Hebrtw 
thought  and  diction ;  well  acquainted  with  Old  Testament  in  the 
original  ;  frequent  quotations,  '  That  it  might  be  fulfilled  ; '  aim 
to  prove  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah  ;  *  the  kingdom '  very  pro- 
minent ;  methodical  groupings  and  combinations  ;  group  of 
parables,  chaps,  xiii.  xxiv.  xxv.;  of  miracles,  chaps,  viii.  ix.  Mark 
— Graphic  and  epic  ;  supposed  to  be  pupil  of  Peter,  whose  fiery 
spirit  pervades  his  book ;  poetic  objectivity  and  minuteness  ; 
details  as  to  the  looks  and  gestures  of  Jesus,  the  amazement  He 
created,  etc.;  aim  to  show  how  He  proved  Himself  to  be  the 
Messianic  King  by  a  succession  of  astonishing  deeds  ;  stormful 
haste,  'forthwith,'  'immediately,'  and  the  like,  very  frequent. 
Luke — More  of  the  trained  historian  than  the  other  Evangelists  ; 
Hellenic  grace  of  style ;  series  of  cameos ;  gives  reasons  of 
events  ;  philosophic ;  psychological  comments ;  Pauline  spirit 
and  universality ;  Christ  not  only  for  the  Jews  but  for  mankind  ; 
genealogy  of  Jesus  traced  back  beyond  Abraham.  John  — 
Supplies  what  the  other  Evangelists  omitted ;  dwells  specially  on 
the  work  of  Jesus  in  Judcca;  His  private  interviews  ;  His  interior 
life ;  His  most  profound  and  mysterious  sayings  ;  lyric  fervour, 
profundity,  and  sublimity  of  farewell  discourses.  (See  Lange, 
Life  of  Christ,  i.  243-285,  and  article  by  Professor  Bruce  in 
Catholic  Presbyterian  for  July  1879.) 

2.  When  were  our  Gospels  wi-itten? — See  Tischendorf's  little 
pamphlet  of  this  name  (translation  published  by  London  Tract 
Society);  Lange,  vol.  i.;  Westcott  on  The  Study  of  the  Gospels. 
It  would  probably  be  out  of  place  in  a  Bible-class  course  to  go 
at  any  length  into  this  vexed  and  vast  question.  The  most 
important  point  is  the  date  of  John's  Gospel ;  see  Luthardt, 
St.  John  the  Author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  (Clark).     'The  man 


HINTS  AND  QUESTIONS.  I4T 

who  hides  from  himself  what  Christianity  and  the  Christian 
revelation  are  takes  the  parts  of  it  to  pieces,  and  persuades  him- 
self that  without  divine  interposition  he  can  account  for  all  the 
pieces.  Here  is  something  from  the  Jews  and  something  from 
the  Greeks.  Here  are  miracles  that  may  be  partly  odd  natural 
events,  partly  nervous  impressions,  and  partly  gradually  growing 
legends.  Here  are  books,  of  which  we  may  say  that  this  element 
was  contributed  by  this  party,  and  the  other  by  that,  and  the 
general  colouring  by  people  who  held  partly  of  both.  In  such 
ways  as  these  Christianity  is  taken  down  and  spread  over  several 
centuries.  But  when  your  operation  is  done,  the  living  whole 
draws  itself  together  again,  looks  you  in  the  fare,  refuses  to  be 
conceived  in  that  manner,  reclaims  its  scattered  members  from 
the  other  centuries  back  to  the  first,  and  re-asserts  itself  to  be  a 
great  burst  of  coherent  life  and  light,  centring  in  Christ.  Just 
so  you  might  take  to  pieces  a  living  tissue,  and  say  there  is  here 
only  so  much  nitrogen,  carbon,  lime,  and  so  forth ;  but  the 
energetic  peculiarities  of  life  going  on  before  your  eyes  would 
refute  you  by  the  palpable  presence  of  a  mystery  unaccounted 
for.'    (Principal  Rainy,  New  College  Inaugural  Address,  1874.) 

3.  Other  Sources  of  the  Life  of  Jesus. — References  in  Joscphus, 
Tacitus,  etc.,  of  little  moment  except  to  show  how  small  insight 
these  observers  had  into  the  most  important  event  of  their  times. 
Jewish  history  and  antiquities  explain  the  period.  Ancient  historj) 
exhibits  'the  fulness  of  time.'     Geography  of  Palestine. 

4.  The  Annunciation.  Prophecy  of  Baptist's  birth.  Visit  of 
Mary  to  Elizabeth.     Events  connected  with  John's  birth. 

1.  For  what  reasons  may  the  Life  of  Christ  be  regarded  as  ilie  iitcst 

interesting  subject  of  htcinan  thought? 

2.  Why  are  the  first  three  Evangelists  called  the  Synoptists  ? 

3.  What  is  the  meaning  of  the  saying  Iha'  the  scenery  of  ralcstine 

is  the  fifth  Gosf'e!  ? 


I4-«  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


Chapter  I. 


Par.  1.  On  the  exact  date  of  the  birth  of  Jesus,  see  the  essays 
at  the  beginning  of  Andrews'  Life.  Luke's  statement  that  the 
taxing  took  place  '  when  Cyrenius  was  governor  of  Syria '  used 
to  be  pointed  to  as  a  mistake,  Cyrenius  having  been  governor 
ten  years  later ;  but  the  discovery  that  Cyrenius  was  twice 
governor  (see  Andrews,  3-6,  70-73)  is  a  remarkable  instance  ol' 
how  alleged  mistakes  in  the  Gospels  are  often  made  to  disappear 
by  further  inquiry. 

2.  On  the  genealogies  in  Matthew  and  Luke,  see  Andrews, 
\n  loc. 

3.  On  Bethlehem,  see  Stanley,  Sinai  and  Palestine. 

4.  It  has  often  been  attempted  to  throw  discredit  on  the  story 
of  our  Lord's  supernatural  origin  by  comparing  it  to  the  heathen 
stories  of  how  sons  of  the  gods  were  born  of  mortal  mothers ; 
but,  first,  such  an  idea  was  utterly  repugnant  to  the  Jewish  con- 
ception of  God,  and  could  not  spring  up  on  Jewish  soil ;  and, 
secondly,  even  these  stories,  poured  forth  from  the  heathen  mind, 
were  indications  of  a  deep  sense  in  humanity  of  the  need  of  the 
Incarnation. 

9.  On  the  star,  see  Andrews  and  Pressens^,  in  loc. 

10.  The  Herods  of  the  New  Testament. — i.  Herod  the  Great,  in 
whose  reign  Jesus  was  born,  reigned  over  the  whole  of  Palestine ; 
died  very  soon  after  Jesus'  birth  ;  his  kingdom  was  divided  at  his 
death  among  his  sons.  2.  Herod  Antipas,  son  of  the  former, 
was  at  his  father's  death  made  tetrarch  of  Galilee  and  Perasa  ; 
the  murderer  of  the  Baptist ;  Jesus  was  sent  to  him  by  Pilate, 
3.  Herod  Agrippa  I.,  grandson  of  Herod  the  Great,  had  as 
great  dominions  as  he  ;  put  to  death  James,  and  imprisoned 
Peter  ;  died  miserably,  as  is  related  in  Acts  xii.  4.  Herod 
Agrippa  ll.,  son  of  Agrippa  I.  ;  Paul  appeared  before  him, 
Acts  XXV. 


HINTS  AND  QUESTUNS.  1 43 

10.  Archelaus  was  soon  deposed  from  the  throne  of  Juda:a, 
which  became  a  part  of  the  Roman  province  of  Syria. 

11.  Farrar's  chapter  on  the  Youth  of  Jesus  is  particularly  good. 
16.  There  are  three  opinions  as  to  the  brothers  and  sisters  of 

Jesus:  first,  that  they  were  His  full  brothers  and  sisters;  secondly, 
that  they  were  the  children  of  Joseph  by  a  former  marriage ; 
thirdly,  that  they  were  His  cousins.  The  Greek  word  for 
'  brethren '  is  used  with  such  latitude  as  to  cover  all  these 
meanings.  See  the  note  in  Plumptrc's  Introduction  to  the 
Epistle  of  James. 

9.    To  what  extait  must  this  star  have  been  su^ei  natural? 
1 8.    IVhat  portions  of  Scripture  were  most  quoted  by  Jesus  ?     What  is 

the  Septuagintl      What  indications  are  there  that  Jesus  did 

not  generally  speak  on  the  spur  0/  tlte  mo/nent,  but  thought  IJii 

discourses  carefully  out  beforehand  1 
12.    What  views  has  Milton  expressed  on  this  subject  in  '  Paradise 

d\cgaiued,'  and  what  is  their  value? 


Chapter  II. 


On  the  subjects  treated  in  the  first  half  of  this  chapter,  the  first 
100  pages  of  Reuss'  Christian  Theology  in  the  Apostolic  Age  will 
be  found  full  of  light. 

27.  It  would  be  useful  here  to  give  a  sketch  of  the  history  of 
the  interval  between  the  Old  and  New  Testament  histories,  of 
which  so  little  is  popularly  known.  See  Ewald's  History  of 
Israel,  vol  v.,  or  Stanley's  Jewish  Church,  vol.  iii.  On  the 
various  modes  in  which  Rome  ruled  subject  territories,  see 
Ramsay's  Roman  Antiquities,  pp.  131  ff. 

28.  Synagogue  arrangements,  Farrar,  i.  221  ff.  The  ritual 
of  Presbyterian  churches  is  a  close  imitation  of  that  of  the 
synagogue,  whereas  Catholic  ritual  imitates  that  of  the  temple 
See  Dods'  Tresbytefianism  older  than  Christianity. 


T44  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

30,  31.  On  the  Pharisees,  see  Mozley's  remarkable  discourse  in 
his  University  Sermons.  Farrar,  i.,  chap,  xxxi.,  will  supply  use- 
ful illustration  of  what  is  said  in  the  text  in  regard  to  the  Scribes. 
A  fund  of  information  on  these  paragraphs  in  Hausralh's  New 
Testament  Times. 

35.  A  somewhat  lengthened  lesson  might  here  be  introduced 
on  the  Old  Testament  prophecies  and  types.  See  Fairbairn's 
Prophecy  and  Typology. 

45.  John  the  Baptist,  excellent  subject  for  class  essay. 

49.  Owen  has  a  remarkable  chapter  on  this  subject  in  his  work 
on  the  Holy  Spirit  (Book  II.  chap.  iv.). 

50.  Potuit  no7i  peccare,  or  Non potuit peccare?  UUmann,  Sin- 
lessness  ofjesus^  and  Christian  Instructor  for  1830,  pp.  1-96, 
and  118-224. 

51.  The  official  significance  of  the  Temptation  is  explained  in 
the  text ;  but  it  would  be  well  to  give  also  its  personal  signifi- 
cance for  the  character  of  Jesus  and  His  relation  to  His  Father. 
Temptation  to  unbelief,  presumption,  and  pride.  Trench,  Gospel 
Studies. 

53.  On  the  plan  of  Jesus,  see  Neander,  in  loc. 

26.   What  are  the  Apocrypha  ? 

31,  32.   Give  parallels  from  the  history  of  Christianity. 

33.   Compare  the  aspects  of  society  iti  our  country  at  present  with  those 

of  Palestine  in  the  time  of  Christ. 
36.   Give  the  names  of  persons  who  are  said  to  have  been  waiting  fot 

the  Messiah,  and  compile  from  the  Song  of  Mary  and  elseivhere 

an  outline  of  what  their  expectations  were. 
38.   Cojnpile  from  scattered  references  in  the  Gospels  an  outline  of  the 

conception  which  the  scribes  and  the  populace  entertained  of  the 

Messiah  and  His  era. 

41.  Givt  instances  of  men  who  have  achieved  a  great  life-work  in  a 

short  time  and  died  young. 

42.  It  has  been  maintained  that  fesus  changed  His  plan,  because  He 

first  addressed  Himself  to  the  Jewish  nation  as  a  whole,  but 
afterwards  organized  the  Christian  Chtirch  from  the  nucleus  of 
a  few  disciples.  What  would  you  say  in  answer  to  such  a  view  ? 
45.  What  7vas  the  difference  between  John''s  baptism  and  Christian 
baptism  ? 


HINTS  AND  QUESTIONS,  I45 

46.  Some  think  that  Resits  ami  John  had  met  before:  is  it  likely? 

On  what  grounds  may  it  be  supposed  that  the  dove  and  the  voice 
from  heaven  were  perceived  only  by  fcstts  and  the  Baptist  ? 
49.   Collect  the  texts  which  speak  of  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Ghost  on 

the  human  nature  of  Jesus. 
53.  Narrate  I\Iilton^  s  account  of  the  Temptation  in  '  Faradise  Regained. 

Divisions  of  the  Minis  I fy. 

What  Andrews  says  on  this  subject,  p.  109,  is  veiy  good  and 
clear,  and  so  are  his  characterisations  of  the  different  periods, 
pp.  120,  167-173,  259,  296-301. 

54.  Sketch  of  the  Geography  of  Palestine.  See  Stanley,  Sinai 
and  Palestine;  Thomson,  The  Land  and  the  Book;  brief  sketch 
in  Farrar,  p.  52  ff. 


Chapter  III. 

59.  There  were  two  cleansings  of  the  teiniJJe,  the  one  at  the 
beginning  and  the  other  at  the  close  of  the  ministry.  Such 
double  accounts  of  similar  events  in  the  Gospels  have  been  seized 
upon  as  examples  of  the  tendency  in  speech  to  multiply  one  event 
into  two.  But  it  is  forgotten  that  this  is  a  tendency  not  only  of 
speech  but  of  action,  and  that  when  a  person  has  done  anything 
once,  there  is  a  likelihood  that  he  will  do  it  again. 

The  Great  Feasta. — i.  The  Passover,  held  in  April,  just  before 
the  harvest  began.  2.  Pentecost,  held  fifty  days  after  the  Pass- 
over, at  the  conclusion  of  the  corn  harvest  and  before  the  vintage. 
3.  The  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  held  in  autumn  after  all  the  fruits 
had  been  gathered  in.  4.  The  Feast  of  Dedication,  which  Jesus 
once  attended,  took  place  in  December. 

57.    Collect  the  sayings  of  John  about  Jesus,  and  of  Jesus  about  John. 
K 


I4(J  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


Chapter  IV. 

On  Galilee,  see  Farrar,  i.  chap.  xii.  Neander's  account  of  the 
means  of  Jesus  is  very  valuable.  For  the  convenience  of  teachers 
who  may  wish  to  follow  out  in  detail  the  incidents  of  each  period 
the  following  list  of  the  events  of  this  year  may  be  given  (see 
Andrews,  pp.  198  ff.  and  536)  : — 

Second  call  of  Peter,  Andrew,  James,  and  John. 

Busy   Sabbath  :    preaches   in   synagogue   of  Capernaum  and  cures 

demoniac ;  heals  Peter's   mother-in-law,  and  cures  many  after 

sunset. 
Next  morning  goes  to  mountain  to  pray,  then  sets  out  on  preaching 

tour  in  the  neighbouring  towns,  in  one  of  which  He  cures   a 

leper. 
Returns  to   Capernaum;  heals  man  'borne  of  four,'  forgiving  his 

sins ;  accused  of  blasphemy ;  walks   by  seaside  and  teaches  •, 

calls  Matthew ;  accused  as  Sabbath-breaker  for  allowing  Plis 

disciples  to  pluck  ears  of  corn  and  for  healing  withered  hand  on 

Sabbath. 
Retires  to  a  mountain ;  calls  the  Twelve ;  delivers  the  Sermon  on 

the  Mount. 
Again  in  Capernaum  ;  heals  centurion's  servant. 
Another  preaching  tour ;  raises  widow's  son  at  Nain  ;  receives  mes- 
sage from  Baptist  and  delivers  paneg}'ric  on  him  ;  dines  with 

Simon  the  Pharisee,  and  is  anointed  by  the  woman  who  was  a 

sinner  ;  parable  of  Two  Debtors. 
In  Capernaum  again  ;  casts  out  dumb  devil ;  visited  by  His  mother 

and  brethren  ;  teaches  from  ship. 
Crossing  the  lake.  He  stills  a  tempest ;  cures  demoniacs  in  country 

of  Gadarenes. 
Back  in  Capernaum  ;  Matthew's  feast ;  raises  Jairus'  daughter  and 

cures  woman  with  issue  of  blood. 
On  another  tour  of  the  Galilean  towns  He  revisits  Nazarelli ;  scuds 

forth  the  Twelve ;  hears  of  Baptist's  murder. 

76.  Some  of  the  many  questions  in  reference  to  the  possibility 
and  the  proof  of  miracles  would  naturally,  in  an  extended  course. 


HINTS  AND  QUESTIONS.  147 

be  treated  here  ;  sec  Mozlcy  on  Miracles.  There  cannot,  I  think, 
be  reasonable  doubt  that  our  Lord  gave  His  sanction  to  the 
view  that  the  demoniacs  were  actually  possessed  by  evil 
spirits. 

80.  Connection  of  the  work  of  Christ  with  the  fate  of  nature. 

84.  On  the  teaching  of  Jesus  many  good  remarks  will  be  found 
in  Harris'  Great  Teacher.  On  its  parabolic  form,  Trench's 
introductory  chapters  in  his  Parables  are  good.  A  much 
fuller  account  of  what  Jesus  taught  than  is  given  in  the  text 
would  be  very  desirable  in  an  extended  course,  and  might  be 
gathered  from  the  relative  portions  of  any  of  the  handbooks 
of  New  Testament  Theology  (Weiss,  Reuss,  van  Oosterzce, 
Schmidt). 

92,  94,  100,  109-113.  It  would  be  a  useful  exercise  for  tlie 
members  of  a  class  to  illustrate  these  paragraphs  by  abundant 
quotations  from  the  Gospels. 

103.  Christ's  metliod  of  dealing  with  inquirers. 

105.  On  the  apostolate,  see  Bruce,  Training  of  the  Twelve. 

107.  Sketches  of  the  leading  apostles.  The  difficulty  about 
the  choice  of  Judas  is  only  a  fragment  of  the  larger  difficulty  of 
reconciling  the  foreknowledge  of  God  and  man's  free-will. 

109.  For  some  of  the  remarks  on  the  character  of  Jesus  I  am 
indebted  to  Keim,  Geschichte  Jesu. 

114.  Ullmann's  Sinlessness  ofjcstcs. 

115.  Here  the  two  names  by  which  Jesus  called  Himself — Son 
of  man  and  Son  of  God — should  be  explained. 

76.  AFention  as  tv.any  giral  and  good  iiwn  as  you  can  uiho  havi  hnt 

called  mad. 

77.  What  7-easons  may  be  sttggested  why  Jesus  sonietiiucs  used  means 

and  sometimes  dispensed  with  them  ? 
79.    IVhat proof  0/ the  credibility  of  the  gospel  account  of  (he  miracLs 

of  Christ  is  afforded  by  the  confession  that  John  worked  none? 
"iiO.  Is  it  correct  to  speak  of  the  miracles  of  Jesus  as  interruptions  oj 

the  order  of  nature? 
81.    What  form  of  missionary  effort  seeks  to  imitate  both  the  pi  caching 

and  healing  activity  of  Christ  ? 


148  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

82.  Can  the  popular  notions  about  the  wicked  life  of  Mary  MagJaleiu 

be  proved  from  the  Gospels  to  be  incorrect  ? 

83.  IVith  what  evidence  would  you  support  the  statement  that  fesus^ 

though  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  was  yet  the  most  joyful  of  men  ? 
86.    What  portions  of  the  Old  Testament  specially  justify  this  descrip- 

iio7t  of  the  Oriental  mind  ? 
89.  Enumerate  the  parables  of  Jestis,  and  make  a  list  oj  His  other 

most  remarkable  fgta-es  of  speech. 

96.  IIo"l!J  would  you  account  for  the  great  difference  betzueen  the  circle 

of  Ch^-isfs  ideas  recorded  by  the  Synoptists,  and  the  circle  oj 
His  ideas  which  we  find  in  John  ? 

97.  Which   of  the   Evangelists   uses  the   phrase,    '  the  kingdom   of 

heaven, '  a7id  what  does  it  mean  ? 
103.   Enumerate  tlie  private  intervieivs  of  yes  us. 
108.    What  proof  of  their  Master'' s  supernatural  greatness  is  afforded 

by  the  character  and  achievements  of  the  Twelve  1 

1 14.  What  conclusions  can  you  draw  from  the  fact  that  "Jesus  was 

sinless  ? 

115.  Prove  the  divinity  of  Christ  as  fully  as  possible  fi-om  the  first 

three  Evani;elists,  and  shaiv  that  it  is  a  complete  mistake  to 
allege  that  it  is  taught  only  by  the  fourth  of  the  Evangelists. 


Chapter  V. 


The  events  of  this  year  were  the  following: — 

Leaving  Capernaum,  He  crosses  the  lake ;  feeds  five  thousand ;  walks 

on  sea  ;  rescues  sinking  Peter. 
Again  in  Capernaum  ;    discourse  on  bread  of  life ;    many  disciples 

forsake  Him  ;  He  says  that  Judas  has  a  devil ;  discussion  about 

eating  bread  with  unwashen  hands. 
Long  journey  to  Tyre  and  Sidon,  where  He  cures  Syro- Phoenician 

woman's  daughter ;  then  to  Decapolis,  where  He  heals  a  deaf 

man  and  feeds  four  thousand  ;  returns  to  Capernaum. 
Leaves  it  again  ;    cures  blind  man    at    Bethsaida ;   visits  Csesarea 

Philippi ;    the   great   confession ;    the    Transfiguration ;    cures 

demoniac  boy  ;  announces  His  death. 
Again  in  Capernaum  ;  pays  tribute. 
Visit  to  Jerusalem  at  Feast   of  Tabernacles  ;    teaches  in   temple ; 


HIX~S  AN'D  QUESTIONS.  149 

attempt   to   arrest   Him  ;   Nicodemus  seeks  justice  for  Him ; 

adulteress  brought  to  Him;  heals  blind  man,  who  argues  with 

rulers  ;  parable  of  Good  Shepherd. 
Final  departure  from  Galilee. 
Journey  towards  Jerusalem  ;  John  and  James  wish  to  rain  fire  on 

a  Samaritan  village  ;    the  Seventy  sent  out  ;    journey  through 

Pera?a  ;  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  ;    the  Lord's  Prayer ; 

dumb  demoniac  healed  ;  encounters  with  Pharisees  ;  parable  of 

Rich  Fool  ;  '  signs  of  the  times  ' ;  heals  infirm  woman  ;  warned 

against  Herod, 
At  Feast  of  Dedication  in  Jerusalem  ;  visit  to  Bethany  ;  nearly  stoned 

in  the  cit)'. 
Uetiies  to  Bethabara ;  while  at  a  feast  in  a  Pharisee's  house  on  the 

Sabbath,   heals  dropsical  man,   and   speaks   parable   of  Great 

Supper  ;  several  parables  directed  against  Pharisees. 
Raising  of  Lazarus. 
Retires  to  Ephraim  ;    heals  ten  lepers  ;    more  parables  against  the 

Pharisees ;    blesses  children  ;    the  rich  young  man  ;    Salome's 

request ;  Jericho — Bartima;us,  Zaccheus  ;  thence  to  Bethany. 

Luke  gives  by  far  the  fullest  account  of  the  events  of  the  period 
between  the  final  departure  from  Galilee  and  the  final  arrival  at 
Bethany,  chaps,  ix.-xix. 

124-128.  It  would  be  a  good  exercise  for  the  pupils  to  collect 
texts  from  the  Gospels  illustrating  these  paragraphs. 

138.  The  effect  of  ib.c  Baptist's  death  on  the  adherents  of  Jesus 
is  put  in  a  very  striking,  perhaps  exaggerated  way  in  Philo- 
chrislus. 

143.  At  Feast  of  Tabernacles  and  Feast  of  Dedication. 

122.  How  far  does  conscientiousness  justify  coiidud?  Illustrate  your 
answer  by  historical  parallels  to  ike  conduct  of  the  Pharisees. 

I2y.  Can  you  show  front  the  Old  Testaincnl  ihal  miracles  were  not 
necessarily  evidences  of  a  divine  mission  it 


150  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


Chapter   VI. 

Details  not  referred  to  in  the  text : — 

Supper  at  Bethany  and  anointing  of  Jesus  by  Mary  ;  barren  fig-tree 
cursed ;  second  purging  of  temple ;  widow's  mites ;  several 
parables  ;  details  of  parting  meeting  with  the  apostles  ;  the 
portents  that  accompanied  His  death ;  details  of  His  burial ; 
restoration  of  Peter. 


145.  The  Passover  took  place  this  year  on  April  6th. 

146.  The  anachronism  of  using  the  days  of  the  Christian  week 
will  be  condoned  for  the  sake  of  clearness. 

152.  I  cannot  adopt  the  theory  of  Judas'  career  expounded  in 
De  Quincey's  well-known  and  brilliant  essay, — that  he  thought 
Jesus  too  unworldly  and  hesitating,  and  precipitated  Him  into  a 
position  in  which  He  would  be  compelled  to  exhibit  His  divine 
glory,  but  with  no  thought  that  He  would  suffer  Himself  to  be 
executed.  Its  strong  point  is  the  suicide  of  Judas,  which  is  held 
to  have  shown  a  kind  of  nobility  in  his  nature.  But  it  is  incon- 
sistent, I  think,  with  his  peculation  and  his  kiss,  and  especially 
with  the  tone  in  which  Scripture  speaks  of  him. 

156.  Here  an  account  might  be  given  of  the  destruction  ol 
Jerusalem,  to  be  got  from  Josephus. 

160.  On  the  difficult  question  whether  it  was  the  Paschal 
supper  which  Jesus  ate  with  the  apostles,  and  whether  John 
places  the  crucifixion  on  the  same  day  as  the  other  Evangelists, 
see  Andrews,  368  ff.,  and  Farrar,  Excursus  x.  ;  also  an  article  by 
Rev.  G.  Brown  in  the  Biitish  and  Foreign  Evangelical  Review 
for  October  1879. 

169.  The  silence  of  Jesus. 

172.  On  the  legal  aspects  of  the  trial,  see  articles  by  A.  Taylor 
Innes,  Advocate,  in  Contempoj-ary  Review,  August  and  October 
1S77. 

100.   Herod  was  ultimately  banished  to  Gaul. 


HINTS  AND  QUESTIONS.  151 

189.  Pilate  was  also  ultimately  deprived  of  his  position,  and  is 
said  by  Eusebius  to  have  at  length  killed  himself,  '  wearied  with 
misfortunes.'  His  wife,  under  the  name  of  Claudia  Procula,  is 
included  among  the  Catholic  saints. 

193.  The  cross  was  probably  of  the  form  in  which  it  is  fami- 
liarly represented,  though  sometimes  it  was  like  the  letter  T  or 
the  letter  X-  It  only  raised  the  victim  a  foot  or  two  above  the 
ground.  The  soldier  was  able  to  reach  the  lips  of  Jesus  with  a 
hyssop-stalk. 

195.  The  circumstance  that  blood  and  water  flowed  from  His 
pierced  side  has  been  held  by  eminent  medical  authorities  to 
prove  that  Jesus  died  literally  of  a  broken  heart — broken  with 
sorrow.  See  the  opinions  of  Sir  J.  Y.  Simpson  and  others  in  the 
Appendix  to  Hanna's  Last  Day  o/our  Lord's  Passion. 

199.  With  the  argument  of  this  section  compare  Paley,  £"7//- 
dcnces  of  Christianity,  Part  i. 

201.  Details  of  Peter's  fall.  It  was  when  passing  from  the 
committee-room,  where  He  had  been  informally  tried,  to  a 
barrack-room,  where  He  was  detained  till  the  legal  hour  foi 
opening  the  court  arrived,  that '  Jesus  turned  and  looked  upon 
Peter.' 

144.   Quote  a  passage  from  Acts  to  shoiu  from  how  many  different 

countries  the  scattered  Jjtvs  gathered  to  the  annual  feast. 
147.    The  meaning  of  Ilosanna  and  of  Hallelujah  ? 
155.    Who  were  the  persons  not  of  Abraham's  seed  with  whom  Jesus 

came  in  contact  in  the  course  of  His  ministry  1 
163.    Collect  the  texts  in  which  the  majesty  of  our  Lord's  appearance 

is  mentioned, 
iSl.  /;/  what  points  was  the  trial  of  Paul  which  resulted  in  his  being 

sent  to  Pome  similar  to  that  of  Jesus  ? 
194.    What  were  the  seven  last  sentences  of  Jesus  ? 
203.    What  is  the  meaning  of  the  remark,  that  the  Christian  Church 

is  tlie  best  biography  of  Christ  ? 


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